
Glass _£XM^ 
Book , Ai 



COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT. 



RECOGNITION OF OUR 
FRIENDS IN HEAVEN 






COME UNTO ME. 



H. HOFMANN 



RECOGNITION OF OUR 
FRIENDS IN HEAVEN 



With Extracts from Distinguished 
Authors and Selections from the Poets 



P. ANSTADT, D. D. 



ILLUSTRATED 
" I go to prepare a place for you." John xiv. 2. 



FOURTH EDITION 



P. ANSTADT&SONS 

YORK, PENNSYLVANIA 



LIBRARY of CONGRESS] 
Two Copies Received 

JAN 3 1908 

Copyn«ni tntry 

\Aua 3* *<?*] 
CLASS A XXc. No, 

COPY B. 

, — ■■- -" i i ii i nm w mrTniTu 






Copyright, 1895, 1907. 
P. ANSTADT & SONS. 



In Loving Memory 

DEDICATED 

TO THE AUTHOR 

P. ANSTADT, D. D. 

1819 • 1903 



"Father, I will that they also, whom thou hast given me, be 
with me where I am ; that they may behold my glory, which thou 
hast given me" — John xvii. 24. 



' ' He hath gone 
To sit with the prophets, by the clear 
And crystal waters; he hath gone to list 
Isaiah's harp and David's, and to walk 
With Enoch and Elijah, and the host 
Of the just men made perfect. He shall bow 
At Gabriel's hallelujah, and unfold 
The scroll of the apocalypse with John, 
And talk of Christ with Mary, and go back 
To the last supper, and the garden prayer 
With the beloved disciple. 
He shall hear the story of the incarnation told 
By Simeon, and the Triune mystery 
Burning upon the fervent lips of Paul. 
He shall have wings of glory, and shall soar 
To the remoter firmaments, and read 
The order and the harmony of stars; 
And, in the might of knowledge, he shall bow 
In the deep pauses of archangel harps, 
And, humble as the seraphim, shall cry — 
'Who, by his searching, finds Thee out, O God!' 



Preface. 

On a visit to the venerable Prof. Henry 
Ziegler, D. D., late of Selins Grove, Pa., he 
showed me a number of manuscript books, 
which he had prepared for publication. 
Among others he handed me the manu- 
script of "Recognition after Death," which 
forms the introduction to this work. 

Recognition in heaven was a favorite 
subject with him, as it is also with my- 
self and thousands of Christians whose 
friends have gone before them to that 
happy land. It was at first designed to 
publish Dr. Ziegler's essay merely in 
pamphlet form. But as I read over the 
doctor's logical and Scriptural argument 
and became warmly interested in the sub- 
ject, the idea expanded in my own mind 
to the extent of preparing and publishing 
this volume. 

(9) 



I also found some very beautiful and 
interesting thoughts of other men in books, 
from which I gathered extracts. Among 
these I mention Drs. Harbaugh, Schmucker, 
Stork, Luther, Melanchthon, Knapp, Cal- 
vin, Tillotson, Doddridge, Baxter, Melville, 
Barnes, and Ezra Keller. And finally 
extracts from the poets were selected. 

This is not a sectarian, nor even, in the 
strict sense of the word, a denominational 
book. The sentiments expressed and the 
hopes entertained in it are shared by most 
Christians of all denominations; yea, in 
some form or other, also, by "all nations 
and kindreds, and peoples, and tongues," 
of all times and all lands. 

Says Dr. Harbaugh: "Recognition in 
heaven is not the belief of any one single 
sect, or of a class of sects, but it is the 
voice of the Church. Men of all creeds 

(10) 



have expressed their belief in this doctrine. 
This gives it a lovely catholic feature. It 
is one of the truths which utter themselves 
from the universal Christian mind and 
heart. It is as broad as human wants 
and woes. Like the hope of heaven it- 
self, it springs up in every heart which 
seeks that friendly and peaceful abode." 

I send it forth, therefore, with the hope 
and prayer, that it may prove a source of 
consolation to many bereaved ones, whose 
friends have indeed not been lost by pass- 
ing through the valley of the shadow of 
death, but have only gone before, to 
welcome their loved ones to that happy 
home, where God shall wipe away all 
tears from their eyes. 

P. ANSTADT. 

York, Pa., Aug., 1895. 

(11) 




Preface to the Fourth Edition. 

The first three editions of the book 
are now exhausted, and there is a desire 
for a fourth. There has been a steady 
demand for the work, which will doubtless 
continue as long as loved ones shall be 
called away by death and bereaved hearts 
shall sigh for a reunion in heaven. The 
book has been revised, some important 
additions being introduced, with a cor- 
responding increase in its value and 
interest. It is now again sent forth on its 
mission of consolation and hope. 

PUBLISHERS. 

December, 1907. 



(12) 



Contents. 

Preface to First Edition 


4 

7 

9 
12 

17 
18 

21 

37 
40 

44 
47 


Preface to Fourth Edition 


List of Illustrations 


Poem — "Recompense" 


Introduction. 

Natural and Spiritual Proofs: The 
Domestic and Social Relations — 
The Universal Hope of a Future 
Life — The Belief of Future Recog- 
nition During the Old and New 
Testament Times — Christ Spoke of 
It as an Acknowledged Truth. . . . 

Bible References 


Poem — "Mornine Land" 


THE RECOGNITION OF OUR 

FRIENDS IN HEAVEN. 

Chapter I. 

The Immortality of the Soul 

Chapter II. 
Previous Acquaintance on Earth .... 

(13) 



O N T E N 



Chapter III. 
Heaven a Place 52 

Chapter IV. 
Memory Preserved and Strengthened 64 

Chapter V. 
Reunion Eternal 74 

Chapter VI. 

The Language of Heaven 79 

Chapter VII. 

New Acquaintances in Heaven 90 

Chapter VIII. 
Occupation in Heaven 98 

Chapter IX. 

Heaven Not Yet Open to View 1 04 

Poem — ''The Gathering Place" 119 

Objections Answered. 

1. The Great Change which Will 

Take Place in Death 122 

2. If It Were True, It Would Be 

More Clearly Revealed 130 

3 . The Heavenly Life Will Be Much 

Higher than This 133 

(14) 



CONTENT 


S 


4. It Would Introduce Partiality 




into Heaven 


136 


5. The Love of Christ Will Occupy 




Us Entirely 


i39 


6. Christ's Answer to the Sad- 




ducees 


146 


7. We Should Miss Some Who Will 




Not Be There 


151 


Poem— "Not Changed but Glorified" 


160 


Extracts from Distinguished 




Authors. 




Luther, Melanchthon, Cruciger, 




Olevianus, Scaliger, Melancthon 




and Camerarius, Jay, Paley, Knapp, 




Tillotson, Hall, Melville, Calvin, 




Newton, Baxter, Chalmers, Dod- 




dridge, Zwinglius, Fenelon, Ed- 




wards, Schmucker, Dodd, Bunyan, 




Herbert, James, Lavel, Smyth, 




Stork, MacDonald, Dwight, Keller, 




Barnes 


163 


Heaven : Its Negative Features — . . 


Its Positive Features 


222 


(15) 






Selections from the Poets. 

Home, Sweet Home 225 

Jerusalem, the Golden 226 

And let our bodies part 227 

The saints on earth and those 

above 228 

Blest hour when virtuous friends 

shall meet 229 

There is a place of sacred rest 230 

My Little Comforter 232 

When I consider life 234 

When the holy angels meet us 235 

Over the river they beckon to me .... 235 

Not Lost, but Gone Before 237 

A Mother's Lament 239 

Christus Consolator 240 

Reunion in Heaven 242 

The Dying Saint to His Soul . 244 

Sorrow Not, Even as Others 245 

Pilgrims of the Night 246 

The Land Immortal 248 

Sweet to Die 250 

The Saints on Earth 251 

When God with Prophets Spake. ... 252 

My Savior First of All 255 

(16) 



List of Illustrations. 

"Come UntO Me" Frontispiece ^ 

PAGB 

The Transfiguration 33^ 

Elijah Taken to Heaven 60 

The Rich Man and Lazarus 67 ' 

Declaring the Resurrection 81 

The Annunciation 92 

A Ministering Spirit 1 00 ^ 

Guardian Angel 105 S 

Lazarus Restored to His Sisters ... 123 

With the Family at Bethany 144 

Cherub Choir 170-^ 

Christ Blessing Little Children .... 181 

Jairus Receives again His Daughter 194 

Mary at the Sepulcher 209 

Christ the Consoler 224 

The Ascension 254 



(17) 



Recompense. 

We are quite sure 

That He will give them back — bright, pure 

and beautiful — 

We know He will but keep 

Our own and His until we fall asleep. 
We know He does not mean 

To break the strands reaching between 

The Here and There. 

He does not mean — though heaven be fair — 

To change the spirits entering there, that 

they forget 

The eyes upraised and wet, 

The lips too still for prayer, 

The mute despair. He will not take 

The spirits which He gave, and make 

The glorified so new 

That they are lost to me and you. 

(18) 



RECOMPENSE 

I do believe 
They will receive 
Us — you and me — and be so glad 
To meet us, that when most I would grow 

sad 
I just begin to think about that gladness, 

And the day 
When they shall tell us all about the way 
That they have learned to go — 
Heaven's pathways show. 
My lost, my own, and I 
Shall have so much to see together by and 
by. 
I do believe that just the same sweet face, 
But glorified, is waiting in the place 
Where we shall meet, if only I 
Am counted worthy in that by and by. 
I do believe that God will give a sweet 

surprise 
To tear-stained, . saddened eyes, 

2 (19) 



And that His heaven will be 
Most glad, most tided through with joy 

for you and me, 
As we have suffered most. God never 

made 
Spirit for spirit, answering shade for shade, 

And placed them side by side — 
So wrought in one, though separate, mys- 
tified — 
And meant to break 
The quivering threads between. When 
we shall wake, 
I am quite sure, we will be very glad 
That for a little while we were so sad. 

— George Klingle. 



(20) 



Introduction. 



The relationships and friendships formed 
here on earth are in many instances 
very intimate, strong and endearing. 
These attachments we come to realize 
in their fullest depth and tenderness only 
on the death of our cherished friends. 
Who of us has not experienced these 
undying attachments and this deep-seated 
sorrow on the death of our loved ones? 
and how naturally does there arise in 
the Christian heart the comforting thought 
and hope of a reunion, recognition and 
communion in the eternal hereafter. 

THE DOMESTIC AND SOCIAL RELATIONS. 

The first proof and assurance is found 
in our domestic and social relations and 
affections. To suppose that our parental, 

(21) 



INTRODUCTION 



filial and fraternal, and, also, our social at- 
tachments generally will be eradicated, or 
even essentially changed, after death, 
would lead to the conclusion that intel- 
ligent and rational beings can exist with- 
out an affectional and emotional nature; 
for, if the attachments just referred to 
are to be destroyed, the destruction of our 
entire affectional and emotional nature 
would seem to be equally involved. This 
is inconceivable. On the contrary, the 
life beyond the grave must be a perpetua- 
tion of the present, — we will carry with 
us our characters, our principles, our 
knowledge, our affections, and attach- 
ments, acquired and cherished here on 
earth. But to perpetuate in heaven the 
attachments formed on earth, there must 
be a recognition of the persons towards 
whom such attachments have been formed ; 

(22) 



that is, there must be a recognition of 
former friends and acquaintances. Unless, 
therefore, our nature is to be radically- 
changed — 

"We shall know each other there." 

THE UNIVERSAL HOPE OF A FUTURE LIFE. 

The second proof is found in the almost 
universal hope among the Gentile nations 
of antiquity of a reunion and recogni- 
tion of former friends in Sheol or Hades. 
This wide-spread hope can not be ac- 
counted for, rationally, except on the 
supposition that it was a tradition trans- 
mitted from a very ancient revelation on 
this subject; for, if reason alone could not 
develop and demonstrate the belief and 
hope of an immortal life, neither could it 
develop and demonstrate that of a future 
reunion and recognition. Of the former, 

(23) 



it is written that Christ "hath abolished 
death and hath brought life and immortality 
to light through the Gospel;" and equally 
true is it of the latter, that He has brought 
into the clearer light of certainty a future 
reunion and recognition. 

To the penitent thief on the cross 
Jesus said: "To-day shalt thou be with 
me in Paradise;" He assured His apostles 
that He was going to His Father's house 
of many mansions to prepare a place 
for them, and that He would come again 
and receive them to Himself, that they 
might be with Him where He was; and 
of the rich man in hell (Hades) He declared, 
that he saw Abraham afar off, and Lazarus 
in his bosom. 



(24) 



INTRODUCTION 



THE BELIEF OF FUTURE RECOGNITION 

DURING THE OLD AND NEW 

TESTAMENT TIMES. 

The third proof of this doctrine is the 
belief of it during the entire history of 
God's people as recorded in the Old and 
New Testaments, from the time of Abraham 
down to Christ and his apostles. In 
Gen., xv. 15, the promise was given 
to Abraham that he "should go to his 
fathers in peace;" and it was subsequently 
said of him, and also of Ishmael, Isaac, 
Jacob, Aaron and Moses, that at their 
death, "they were gathered to their people." 
Gen. xxv. 8, 17; xxxv. 29; xlix. 29, 33; 
Deut. xxxii. 49, 50. This phraseology 
can not mean that these patriarchs were 
buried in the sepulchers of their fathers; 
for Abraham was buried in Canaan, far 
from the home of his ancestors, which was 

(25) 



first in Ur, and afterwards in Haran, 
in Mesopotamia; and Aaron and Moses 
found their resting places in Mount Hor 
and Mount Nebo. The only conclusion 
is, that the souls of these patriarchs not 
only survived the death of their bodies, 
but also, that they were gathered to the 
spirits of their fathers into some place 
different from their family sepulchers ; 
besides, the phraseology — "gathered to 
thy people," — and the hopes of these men 
awakened by it, seem to point very strongly 
to a conscious reunion, recognition and 
communion of former friends. 

Again: In Gen. xxxvii. 34, 35, it is 
recorded of Jacob, that he, when grieving 
for his son Joseph, said: "I will go down 
into the grave unto my son mourning." 
Jacob, crediting the report of his other 
sons, believed that his beloved Joseph 

( 2 6) 



had been devoured by wild beasts; there- 
fore his "going to him into the grave," 
could have no reference to a place of 
burial — it is intended to convey, beyond 
doubt, the same idea and belief of the 
former phraseology — "being gathered to 
thy people," — it embodies the belief and 
hope of a reunion, recognition and com- 
munion of souls in the spirit-world. 

And again, King David, mourning for 
his deceased child, said, "I shall go to 
him, but he shall not return to me." 
2 Sam. xii. 22, 23. This going to his child 
is said with such assurance and emphasis, 
that we are forced to refer it to a reunion 
of souls after death — the king believed 
that he would meet his child, and com- 
mune with him, in the other world. 

The same belief is expressed by the 
prophet Samuel when he was called back 

(27) 




from the spirit-world at the request of 
King Saul. His address to the King was: 
"To-morrow shalt thou be with me." 
i Sam. xxviii. 19. 

Then again, Christ says: "Make to your- 
selves friends of the mammon of unright- 
eousness; that, when ye fail, they may 
receive you into everlasting habitations." 
Luke xvi. 9. This "receiving into ever- 
lasting habitations" those who befriended 
us on earth must certainly refer to some 
remembrance and acknowledgment of, 
and some kind of return for, such former 
services. There must, therefore, be some 
kind of reunion and recognition of former 
friends in the other world. 

Once more, St. Paul, 1 Thess. iv. 13-18, 
takes special pains to enlighten the church 
at Thessalonica on this subject, some of 

(28) 



whose members were evidently sorrowing 
for their departed friends. He says: 

Verse 13 ''But I would not have 
you to be ignorant, brethren, con- 
cerning them which are asleep, that 
ye sorrow not, even as others which 
have no hope;" 

and then adds to their comfort: 

Verse 14 "For if we believe that 
Jesus died and rose again, even so 
them also which sleep in Jesus will 
God bring with him. 

Verse 15 "For this we say unto 
you by the word of the Lord, that we 
which are alive and remain unto the 
coming of the Lord shall not prevent 
them which are asleep. 

Verse 16 "For the Lord himself 
shall descend from heaven with a 
shout, with the voice of the archangel, 

(29) 




and with the trump of God: and the 
dead in Christ shall rise first: 

Verse. 17 "Then we which are 
alive and remain shall be caught up 
together with them in the clouds, to 
meet the Lord in the air: and so shall 
we ever be with the Lord. 

Verse 18 "Wherefore comfort one 
another with these words." 

Now, what comfort could it be to 
the bereaved brethren at Thessalonica, 
or to us at present, to tell us that God 
would bring with Christ, at his second 
coming, our friends who sleep in Jesus, 
and that the dead in Christ shall rise first, 
and that afterwards those who shall yet 
be alive shall be taken up together with 
them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in 
the air, and that then we shall ever be 
with the Lord — what comfort, I ask, could 

(3°) 



INTRODUCTION 



all this be to us, if departed friends, in 
that reunion, could neither know nor com- 
mune with one another? Without this, 
St. Paul's instruction and proffered com- 
fort is nothing but a vain hope, a solemn 
farce! No, no! such a thought should 
not for one moment disturb our hope! 
God's people will be reunited — they will 
recognize each other, and hold communion 
together in "My Father's house of many 
mansions." 

CHRIST SPOKE OF IT AS AN ACKNOWLEDGED 
TRUTH. 

My fourth and last proof of this doctrine 
of future recognition and communion is, 
that Christ spoke of it, not as something 
to be devoutly desired yet faintly hoped 
for, but as an established truth and un- 
doubted reality, both in the parable of 

(31) 



INTRODUCTION 

the rich man and Lazarus, and on the 
mount of transfiguration. 

In the parable of the rich man, Lazarus 
and Abraham are associated together, 
and recognize and commune with each 
other. Luke xvi. 19-31. And on the 
mount, Moses and Elijah appear in com- 
pany, and they are recognized by Christ 
and his three apostles; and so endearing 
was this communion that Peter said to 
Jesus: "Lord, it is good for us to be here: 
if thou wilt, let us make here three tab- 
ernacles — one for thee, and one for Moses, 
and one for Elias." Matt. xvii. 1-8. 
Mark ix. 2-10; Luke ix. 28-36. 

There is, however, another proof for 
this doctrine to be derived from the 
reappearance of Moses and Elijah on the 
mount of transfiguration They were utter 
strangers on earth, for the former lived 

(32) 



wmmm,. 




■:..■■ -r 



Wmmig 






THE TRANSFIGURATION. 



I N 


T 


R D U C T I 


N | 



at least five hundred and fifty years before 
the latter * and yet they had learned to 
know each other, and to hold communion 
together. If those who were perfect 
strangers on earth can thus recognize 
each other, and be thus associated together, 
in the spiritual world, how much more 
those who were so long and so tenderly 
related as parents, and children, and 
friends ! 

Thus, from the days of Abraham down 
through the whole period of revelation, 
the people of God believed in a future 
reunion, recognition and communion of 
departed souls; and Christ has brought 
this hope, equal with "life and immortality,'' 
into the full light of absolute certainty. 



*Moses died 145 1 B. C. 
Elijah died 896 B. C. 



(35) 



INTRODUCTION 

We do know that we shall know each other 
on the other shore. 

"When the holy angels meet us, 

As we go to join their band; 
We shall know the friends that greet us 

In the glorious spirit land: 
We shall see the same eyes shining 

On us, as in days of yore; 
We shall feel the dear arms twining 

Fondly round us as before." 



(36) 




Bible References. 



Gen. xv. 15 "Thou shalt go to thy fa- 

i 

thers in peace." 
Gen. xxv. 8, 17 "Gathered unto his peo- 
ple." xxxv. 29. xlix. 29, 33. Deut. 
xxxii. 49, 50. 

Gen. xxxvii. 34, 35 "For I will go down 

into the grave unto my son mourning . ' 
j 

I Sam. xxviii. 19 "Tomorrow shalt thou 

and thy sons be with me." 

II Sam. xii. 22, 23 "I shall go to him, 

but he shall not return to me." 

... 

Matt. viii. 11 "Many shall come from 

the east and west, and shall sit down with 
Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, in the 
kingdom of heaven." Luke xiii. 28, 29. 
Matt. xvii. 3 "And, behold, there ap- 
peared unto them Moses and Elias talk- 
(37) 3 



ing with him." Matt. xvii. 1-8. Mark 
ix. 2-10. Luke ix. 28-36. 

Luke vii. 15 "And he that was dead sat 
up and began to speak. And he de- 
livered him to his mother." 

Luke xvi. 9 "That, when ye fail, they 
may receive you into everlasting habi- 
tations." 

Luke xvi. 23 "And in hell he lift up his 
eyes, being in torments, and seeth 
Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his 
bosom." 19-31. 

Luke xxiii. 43 "Today shalt thou be with 
me in Paradise." 

John xi. 23 "Thy brother shall rise again." 
John xiv. 2 "I go to prepare a place for 
you." xiv. 1-3. 

I Cor. xiii 12 "But then shall I know 
even as also I am known." 

(38) 



BIBLE REFERENCES 

Col. i. 28 "That we may present every 
man perfect in Christ Jesus." 

I Thess. ii. 19, 20 "For what is our hope, 
or joy, or crown of rejoicing? Are not 
even ye in the presence of our Lord 
Jesus Christ at His coming? For ye are 
our glory and our joy." 

I Thess. iv. 14 "Even so them also which 
sleep in Jesus will God bring with him." 

I Thess. iv. 18 "Wherefore comfort one 
another with these words." 13-18. 

Rev. vii. 9 "And, lo, a great multitude, 
which no man could number, of all 
nations, and kindreds, and people, and 
tongues." 

Rev. vii. 14 "These are they which came 
out of great tribulation, and have 
washed their robes, and made them 
white in the blood of the lamb." 

(39) 



RECOGNITION OF OUR 



piorning-Land. 

"Some day," we say, and turn our eyes 

Toward the fair hills of Paradise; 

Some day, some time, a sweet new rest 

Shall blossom, flower-like, in each breast; 

Some day, some time, our eyes shall see 

The faces kept in memory; 

Some day their hands shall clasp our hand, 

Just over in the Morning-land — 

O Morning-land. O Morning-land. 

— Edward H. Phelps. 

"Joy cometh in the morning." Psa. xxx. 5. 



(40) 






FRIENDS IN HEAVEN 



Recognition of Our Friends 
in fleaven.. 

If any of us had decided to go to 
a distant country, and make that our 
home for life, we should naturally be 
very desirous to learn everything im- 
portant or interesting about that 
country. We should like to know 
how far away it was, and what was 
the best way to reach it ; we should 
also wish to learn the nature of the 
land, whether it was hilly or level 
whether it was fertile or barren ; 
what were its productions and 
minerals, what kind of climate it had, 
hot or cold, healthy or malarious ; 

(41) 



RECOGNITION OF OUR 



what kind of government it had, mon- 
archical or republican ; what kind 
of laws were in force, and what were 
the necessary qualifications for be- 
coming citizens ; and especially should 
we like to know the character of 
the inhabitants, whether they were 
civilized or savage, whether they 
were heathen, Mohammedans, Jews 
or Christians ; what language they 
spoke, and whether we should be able 
to have intercourse or conversation 
with them ; and lastly, it would be very 
important for us to learn whether 
there were any of our own relatives 
or friends already in that country, 
and whether we could meet them, 
recognize them, and they recognize 

(42) 



FRIENDS IN HEAVEN 



us, and whether we could have 
friendly intercourse with one another. 
This last question particularly 
shall occupy our thoughts in these 
pages, and in answering it we shall 
emphasize the requisites for a future 
recognition, or the conditions which 
are absolutely necessary to our 
knowing one another in heaven. 



(43) 



CHAPTER I. 

THE IMMORTALITY OF THE SOUL. 

If the human soul is not immortal, 
if death ends all, and there is no life 
beyond the grave, then, of course, 
there can be no such thing as a future 
recognition. Oh, how dark, hopeless 
and miserable then the valley of the 
shadow of death ! But that there 
is a future state after the death 
of the body is a truth almost intuitive 
in the human mind. All people from 
the earliest times have believed in a 
future life ; heathens, Mohammedans, 
Jews, and above all, Christians believe 
in the immortality of the soul. No 

(44) 



FRIENDS IN HEAVEN 



truth is taught more emphatically in 
the Bible, in both Old and New 
Testaments, than that of an eternal, 
conscious existence, of either happiness 
or woe ; the righteous shall enter into 
eternal happiness, and the wicked 
into everlasting punishment. "God 
so loved the world, that he gave his 
only begotten Son, that whosoever 
believeth in him should not perish, 
but have everlasting life." John hi. 1 6. 
Jesus said to his disciples on the 
night before his crucifixion and death, 
"In my Father's house are many 
mansions: ... I go to prepare a 
place for you. And ... I will come 
again and receive you unto myself; 
that where I am, there ye may be 

(45) 



also." John xiv. 2, 3. Very many 
texts like these might be quoted 
from the Holy Scriptures, which 
teach in the plainest and most em- 
phatic words a future state of exist- 
ence. It is hardly necessary to prove 
this, either from reason or from 
Scripture ; we take it for granted. 



(46) 



CHAPTER II. 

PREVIOUS ACQUAINTANCE ON EARTH. 

We shall, indeed, meet with many 
Christians, whom we have never met 
or known on earth, and with whom 
we shall then become acquainted ; 
but that will not be recognition, for 
recognition implies that we meet with 
a person, after a lapse of time, whom 
we knew before, and feel certain that 
it is the same person with whom we 
were previously acquainted. Where 
a previous acquaintance has not 
existed between two or more persons, 
there may be new acquaintances and 
attachments formed, but that cannot 

(47) 



be recognition in the true sense of 
the word. Hence, there must have 
been previous acquaintance before 
there can be future recognition. 

Some one has said, " Before we 
think and talk so much about a reco^- 
nition in heaven, there ought to be 
more recognition among the members 
of the church on earth." It is true, 
there are many members, often of 
the same congregation, who have 
never become acquainted with each 
other. This is especially the case in 
very large congregations in the cities. 
There is often very little intercourse 
or acquaintance between the rich and 
the poor, the learned and the un- 
learned, those in high stations and 

(48) 



FRIENDS IN HEAVEN 



those in the humbler walks of life ; 
now, when these different classes 
meet in the mansions of our Father's 
house, they will, indeed, not recog- 
nize each other, but they will become 
acquainted and form new friendships. 
A quaint writer has said, " When I 
get to heaven I think three things 
will particularly surprise me. The 
first surprise will be, that I shall meet 
some in heaven whom I did not ex- 
pect to meet there. These are some 
who were in the humble walks of life, 
or some of the poor and obscure 
Christians, who never made much 
demonstration of their religion ; I 
passed them on the street, but never 
had any thought or made any inquiry 

(49) 



about their hope of heaven; but lo ! 
when I arrive there myself I recognize 
them, to my great surprise, among 
the white robed throng before the 
throne. 

" The second surprise will be, that 
some whom I expected to meet there 
will not be found in those blissful 
abodes. They are members of the 
church, they went with me to the 
communion table and made loud pro- 
fession of religion, and of course I 
expected to meet them in heaven. 
And I look for them on the golden 
streets of the New Jerusalem, but see 
them not there ; I search for them on 
the banks of the river of life, but find 
them not among the trees of life ; I 

(50) 



inquire among the innumerable com- 
pany that stand in white before the 
throne, but they are not among that 
happy throng. I expected to meet 
them in heaven, but, alas, to my great 
surprise, they are not there. They 
must have been either hypocrites or 
mere formalists, who had, indeed, the 
form of godliness, but lacked its 
power. 

"The third thing, and greatest sur- 
prise of all, will be that I shall find 
myself in heaven. After all my sins 
and sorrows, my temptations, toils, 
pains, disappointments, sickness and 
death, to find myself in heaven at 
last ! saved through the blood of the 
Lamb!" 

(5i) 



CHAPTER III. 



HEAVEN A PLACE. 



Dr. Chalmers says in one of his 
published sermons, that heaven is 
not a place, but a condition, into 
which we shall enter after death. 
Now, it is true, that without a renewal 
of heart and life, sanctified by the 
Holy Ghost, heaven could not be a 
state of happiness to any one, even 
in the most exalted position ; yet we 
instinctively regard heaven as a local- 
ity, a place in God's universe, where 
he more particularly displays his 
glorious attributes to his intelligent 
creatures. And the Scriptures speak 

(52) 



FRIENDS IN HEAVEN 



of heaven as a place ; some of the 
descriptions of heaven may be figura- 
tive or symbolical, yet the idea of 
locality is always associated with the 
very word, heaven. Such are the 
descriptions of the New Jerusalem, 
with its foundations of precious stones, 
its walls of jasper, its gates of pearl, 
and its streets of shining gold ; also 
its river of life, flowing from the throne 
of God, the trees of life growing on its 
banks, and the redeemed walking in 
the street among these trees, indicate 
the idea that heaven is a locality. 
Paul speaks of his desire to go away 
and be with Christ ; now Christ is 
indeed with his people on earth in an 
invisible manner, even to the end of 

(53) 4 



the world, but Paul wishes to be 
with Christ where he can see him 
face to face and be like him. Then, 
also, the Savior himself expressly 
calls heaven a place in the mansions 
of his Father's house. 

But where this place is, in the im- 
mensity of God's universe, we can only 
conjecture. For instance, the earth 
revolves around its own axis, once in 
twenty-four hours, forming the day 
and the night ; the moon revolves 
around the earth, once in four weeks ; 
the earth with the moon revolves 
around the sun, once a year, forming 
the different seasons ; then all the 
planets in our planetary system re- 
volve around our sun, as their and 

(54) 



our common centre, at various dis- 
tances and in different periods of 
time. We are taught by the astron- 
omers, that the fixed stars are also 
suns that have planets with their 
satellites revolving around them. 
But they profess also to have dis- 
covered that our sun with its plane- 
tary system and all the vast hosts of 
suns with their planetary systems 
revolve around one common center 
which is therefore the center of the 
universe ; and we conclude, where 
the center of the universe is, there 
is the eternal throne of God, and 
where God's throne is, there is heaven. 
It is an awfully sublime and over- 
whelming thought, that God is seated 

(55) 



«!■ I " ! 1I..I." II '» > ■■ - - ■ — 



RECOGNITION OF OUR 

upon his immovable throne in the 
center of the universe, with all the 
works of his hands revolving around 
him in harmonious and glorious 
motion, called by the ancients the 

music of the spheres, 

Forever singing as they shine, 
The hand that made us is divine. 
Now, in order that there may be a 

future recognition of the saints in 

heaven, they must not be scattered 

at inconceivable distances in the 

immensity of the universe, but must 

be brought into such close proximity 

that they may have easy intercourse 

with one another. Spirits may, in- 
deed, have better means of intercourse 
than we now have, while we are 
tabernacling in the flesh ; but even 

(56) 



spirits are not omnipresent, for omni- 
presence is an attribute of the infinite 
God, which finite beings do not possess. 
Therefore, if there be a future recogni- 
tion there must be a common center, 
where we can meet and commune 
with each other. We may not al- 
ways remain in one place, but as 
we shall be like unto the angels, 
God will doubtless employ us as he 
does the angels, who are his minis- 
tering spirits, and we may be sent 
by him, as the angels are, to execute 
his will and purpose in various and 
distant parts of his universe. But 
we cannot permanently or constantly, 
be separated, if there is to be a rec- 
ognition in heaven. 

(57) 



The so-called Soul-sleepers tell 
us, that man's spirit falls asleep at 
death, and remains in an uncon- 
scious state till the day of judgment. 
This is a false and unscriptural 
theory. The soul of the believer 
enters immediately after death into a 
state of consciousness and ineffable 
joy. Moses and Elijah appeared on 
the Mount of Transfiguration and 
conversed with Jesus, the one fifteen 
hundred and the other nine hundred 
years after death. 

Here the question may arise, If 
heaven is at such an inconceivable 
distance from the earth, how shall 
the dying Christian reach his happy 
home? Shall he be left alone to 

(58) 




ELIJAH TAKEN TO HEAVEN, 



F. PHILIPPOTEAUX. 



find his way through the dark valley 
of the shadow of death? or lose him- 
self in the immensity of God's uni- 
verse? Oh no, there will be no 
trouble or difficulty there. God will 
send his angels to bring his re- 
deemed home to glory. 

As it was with Elijah, with the 
malefactor and with Lazarus, so will 
it also be with every child of God 
when the spirit is separated from 
the body. There is a beautiful alle- 
gory on the transit of the departing 
spirit of the Christian to the Paradise 
of God: 

While he is lying on his death- 
bed, and his friends are in the silent 

chamber waiting" to minister to his 

(61) 



latest wants or listening to the last 
words of affection from his lips, holy 
angels are also present, though un- 
seen by mortal eyes, ready to carry 
his emancipated spirit home. As 
soon as the soul has left the body 
they take it up on their wings of 
light and glory, they fly swifter than 
the lightning, we may suppose, past 
the moon, past the planets, past 
some of the fixed stars. Perhaps on 
their way they are met by the angel 
Gabriel, sent by God on a message 
to some distant part of the universe. 
They stop a moment; he asks them, 
Whence come ye, whither go ye, and 
whom bring ye here ? And they reply, 
We come from the planet Earth and 

(62) 






we are bringing one of the redeemed 
ones home to heaven. Then they 
continue their flight on and on, till 
they come into the effulgence of the 
mediatorial throne of Christ, and he 
also asks them, Whence come ye, 
and whom bring ye here? And they 
reply, We come from the planet 
Earth, and we have brought one of 
the redeemed ones home. He comes 
up out of much tribulation ; he has 
washed his robes and made them 
white in the blood of the Lamb, and 
now we have brought him up to re_ 
ceive his crown from thy hand. And 
Jesus stretches out his hands toward 
him and says, Come, thou blessed 
one, enter thou into the joy of thy 

Lord. 

(63) 



RECOGNITION OF OUR 



CHAPTER IV. 

MEMORY TO BE PRESERVED AND 
STRENGTHENED. 

If, when we enter into the spirit 
world, all that we once knew of 
events and persons in this world 
should be blotted out from our mem- 
ory, then we could not know our 
friends when we meet them in 
heaven ; we might become acquainted 
with them again, but that would be 
no recognition, it would be merely 
forming new friendships ; if we had 
no recollection of each other, we 
could meet only as strangers, ready 
to form new acquaintances with kin- 
dred spirits in heaven. 

(6 4 ) 



But in order that there may be a 
recognition of our friends in heaven, 
we must retain the powers of our 
memories unimpaired; we must be 
able confidently to say, This is my 
father, this is my mother, this is my 
brother, this is my sister, this is my 
child, this man was my pastor, this 
was my teacher in the Sunday-school, 
this one was my neighbor, and this 
was my class-mate in school, or col- 
lege, or seminary. Unless we can thus 
remember and designate each other, 
there can be no real recognition in 
heaven. But that our memories shall 
be thus preserved and even strength- 
ened after death is evident from 
many passages of Scripture. Said 

(65) 



Abraham to the rich man in hell, 
''Son, remember that thou in thy 
lifetime receivedst thy good things, 
and likewise Lazarus evil things." 

Indeed, there is reason to believe 
that the memory will be strengthened 
in an extraordinary degree after the 
spirit is separated from the body. 
Instances are related of persons who 
believed themselves in imminent 
danger of death, and had the history 
of their whole lives instantly brought 
to their minds, even to the minut- 
est particulars. Persons who believed 
themselves in the act of drowning, 
and were rescued just as they had 
given up all hope of life, and were 
sinking for the last time under the 

(66) 




THE RICH MAN AND LAZARUS. 



water, had the history of their lives 
minutely brought to their minds. 

I read of an instance, where a lion 
that had escaped from his cage in a 
menagerie suddenly crouched before 
a man standing in front of his house, 
ready to spring upon him; the man 
stood paralyzed, not daring to move 
hand or foot, expecting every mo- 
ment the lion would spring upon him 
and tear him to pieces. In that 
moment his whole life stood as in a 
picture before him. Fortunately, a 
large dog sprang out at that moment 
and bit the lion, but was instantly 
killed by him, and thus the man's life 
was saved. 

A very singular case is recorded 
(69) 



in a book on mental science. A 
woman who was taken sick and was 
lying in a state of delirium began to 
repeat long passages in a strange 
language. The people around her 
did not understand a word she said. 
At last a minister of the gospel was 
called in, and he declared she was 
repeating Hebrew out of the Old 
Testament Scriptures. A Hebrew 
Bible was consulted, and it was found 
that she repeated extracts from 
the Old Testament in the Hebrew 
language. She had never learned 
Hebrew and in her normal state of 
mind she did not understand a word, 
nor could she tell the name of a single 
letter in the Hebrew language. But 

(70) 



-Ml- - - - -■ 



FRIENDS IN HEAVEN 

it was learned that she had once 
lived with a minister who was a 
distinguished Hebrew scholar, and he 
was in the habit of reading aloud in 
his study passages out of the Hebrew 
Bible. She heard the words and 
years after in her delirium she re- 
peated them as she had heard them 
from the lips of the old minister. 

The following is related by Mr. 
Beecher : "I know a man who said, 
that in falling twenty feet, when he 
expected to die, the thoughts of a 
lifetime seemed to pass through his 
mind. He thought of his business, 
of his wife, of his children and of the 
eternity to which he was going. A 
life seemed to pass through his mind, 

(71) 



and nothing was lost. So it will be 
when memory summons the acts of 
a life at the last tribunal. Nothing 
is lost. Thoughts once impressed, 
but apparently lost, will come up 
again. A life is written on our 
memory as with invisible ink. It is 
apparently lost to our frail sight while 
here ; but in the judgment-light, it 
will be seen enveloped around us and 
will be unrolled till every line and 
letter is made visible. 

"I knew a sailor, who said that 
when once in a storm on the giddy 
mast, while trying to furl a sail, and 
he could not, he cursed God. It 
passed out of his mind for twenty 
years ; but then, in a season of excite- 

(72) 



FRIENDS IN HEAVEN 



ment, he said, ' Now I remember it ; 
I am lost.' " 

Such a strengthening of the memory 
is thought to be necessary, in order 
to vindicate the justice of God in the 
condemnation and punishment of the 
wicked, when the books shall be 
opened and every man shall be judged 
according to the deeds done in the 
body. For, if the sinner could not 
be mindful of the sins which he had 
committed, he would think his punish- 
ment was greater than he deserved, 
and that God was unjust. But when 
he sees his sins in all their countless 
number and all their black and 
horrible enormity, unrepented of, 
unatoned for and unforgiven, he must 
admit that his punishment is deserved 
and that God is just. 

5 (73) 



CHAPTER V. 

REUNION ETERNAL. 

The union with our friends in glory 
will be eternal. Separations on earth 
are often painful. When families are 
temporarily separated ; when a son 
goes into business for himself, or a 
daughter gets married and moves to 
a distant place, the separation often 
causes sorrow ; but we are consoled 
by the hope that we may meet sooner 
or later again ; occasionally they will 
revisit the parental home; some- 
times there is a family reunion. So 
also when a member of the family is 
taken away by death the survivors go 

(74) 



forth and weep together, but they 
are consoled by the hope that the 
loved ones are not lost, but only gone 
before. The idea that the separation 
must be eternal would be overwhelm- 
ingly dreadful. Temporary separa- 
tions there may be, even in heaven, 
when God shall commission us or any 
of our sainted friends to go on some 
errand in a distant part of the uni- 
verse, like the angels who are his 
ministering spirits. But the separa- 
tion will be only temporary, and the 
reunion after a temporary separation 
will cause rather an increase of 
our joy. 

One of the most beautiful thoughts 
and blessed hopes is that of the re- 

(75) 



union of the Christian family in 
heaven ; there should not and there 
need not be a separation of a Chris- 
tian family in the world to come. 
Here on earth they lived together 
in peace and love and hope ; they 
shared one another's joys and sorrows; 
they ate at the same table ; they 
slept under the same roof; they were 
buried side by side in the grave-yard, 
on a lot not as large as the house in 
which they dwelt ; on the morning of 
the resurrection they rise up together 
to meet their Savior coming in the 
clouds of heaven ; before the judg- 
ment throne they all stand on the 
right hand, not one lost or missing, 
nor father, nor mother, nor brother, 

(76) 



FRIENDS IN HEAVEN 



nor sister ; but all hear that joyful 
welcome, Come, ye blessed of my 
Father, inherit the kingdom prepared 
for you from the foundation of the 
world. Methinks I see the children 
rising up to bless their parents as 
instruments in leading them to Christ 
and salvation. Methinks I hear them 
say, We remember our home in 
yonder world, consecrated by your 
piety and your prayers, as the house 
of God and the gate of heaven. 
There we knelt with you at the family 
altar in prayer, we walked with you 
to the house of God and heard the 
gospel preached, and went with you 
to the communion table of our Lord. 
Your Christian example, your fervent 

(77) 



RECOGNITION OF OUR 



prayers, your faithful instruction, 
your parental admonitions, brought 
down upon us the blessing of our 
God, and now we stand in these 
white robes of Christ's righteousness 
on these heights of Zion to bless you, 
our father, you, our mother, as the 
instruments in the hand of God of 
our salvation. No pen can describe, 
no tongue can tell, no heart can 
conceive the happiness of such a 
family. Dear reader, would you 
make this blessedness your own ? 
Then begin, if you have not already 
begun, the use of every means of 
grace and the performance of every 
duty that by the grace of God may 
bring about the union of your whole 
family in heaven. 

(78) 



CHAPTER VI. 

THE LANGUAGE OF HEAVEN. 

Much of our enjoyment in this 
world is found in the company of our 
friends, and in the interchange of 
communications with each other. If 
we could not converse and communi- 
cate our thoughts, views and feelings 
with each other, heaven would be a 
very dull place. 

From numerous passages of Scrip- 
ture we learn that saints and angels 
have the power of speech. The angel 
Gabriel announced to the Virgin 
Mary that she would become the 
mother of Jesus. The angel said 

(79) 




to the shepherds on Bethlehem's 
plains, " Behold, I bring you good 
tidings of great joy: for unto you is 
born this day in the city of David a 
Savior, which is Christ the Lord.'' 
The angel said to the women who 
came early to the sepulchre, "Ye 
seek Jesus, — he is not here — he is 
risen from the dead — go tell his dis- 
ciples," etc. So also Moses and 
Elijah came down from heaven and 
talked with Jesus on the Mount of 
Transfiguration, and Peter and the 
other apostles heard and understood 
what they said. 

The question may be raised, Shall 
there be a universal language in 
heaven, which we shall learn when 

(80) 




ALEX ENDER. 

DECLARING THE RESURRECTION. 



we get there? or shall we each speak 
the particular language which was 
our mother tongue on earth? or shall 
we be able to communicate our 
thoughts and feelings reciprocally to 
each other without articulate sounds 
and words? We do not know just 
now how we shall converse with each 
other in heaven, but we shall know 
when we get there. Our words now 
are uttered by our bodily organs of 
speech, but by what means disem- 
bodied spirits converse is one of those 
things which we do not yet under- 
stand, or need to understand. 

When God made man He en- 
dowed him with the power of speech. 
What language our first parents 

(83) 



spoke in Eden has not been definitely 
revealed. Perhaps it was the He- 
brew, in which the Old Testament 
Scriptures were written. Whatever 
that language may have been, cer- 
tainly it was the only one spoken by 
the human race for about two thou- 
sand years after the creation of man ; 
that is, from Adam to the building 
of the tower of Babel. Thus we 
read in the eleventh chapter of the 
book of Genesis : "And the whole 
earth was of one language and of one 
speech. And as they journeyed from 
the east, they found a plain in the 
land of Shinar and dwelt there. And 
they said, Let us build us a city and 
a tower whose top may reach unto 

(84) 



heaven, and let us make us a name, 
lest we be scattered abroad upon the 
face of the whole earth." The com- 
mon notion is, that they wished to 
build a tower so high that in case 
of another flood they could be safe 
on the top of it. But it would have 
been impossible to build a tower so 
high that its top could not be sub- 
merged by a flood like that in the 
time of Noah, which overflowed the 
highest mountains ; nor could many 
of them have assembled or subsisted 
there for any length of time without 
a supply of provisions. Their evident 
design was to build a large city, and 
make it the center of the world's 
population ; they did not wish to be 

(85) 



RECOGNITION OF OUR 



—I 



scattered over the whole surface of 
the earth. But this was contrary to 
God's design. He said, " Increase 
and multiply and fill the earth." He 
therefore thwarted their intention by 
confounding their tongues, and mak- 
them unintelligible to one another, 
so that when one called for stone 
another brought up wood, when one 
called for timber another brought up 
iron, etc., etc. Hence they disagreed, 
the work could not go on, they sepa- 
rated and settled in different parts 
of the world. From that time on 
people have spoken different lan- 
guages in various parts of the earth, 
and the inhabitants of one country 
cannot understand the language of 

(86) 



FRIENDS 



I N 



HEAVEN 



the people in another country. It is 
said that there are now over three hun- 
dred languages and dialects among 
the inhabitants of this babbling earth. 
There are, however, still a few 
words which are common to all lan- 
guages. 

An instance is related of two con- 
verts to Christianity from heathen 
lands, who met on a ship. Neither 
could speak the language of the 
other, but each had an idea that the 
other was a Christian. At last one 
of them called out: "Hallelujah!" 
and the other responded, "Amen!' 1 
These words were intelligible to 
both, and they recognized each other 
as brethren in Christ. 

(87) 



It is related of a pious old German 
woman, that she feared she would be 
very lonesome in heaven, because all 
the people about her were speaking 
English, and would also speak 
English in heaven, and she would 
not be able to understand what they 
said or sang. 

It is possible that in heaven we 
shall have the gift of tongues, by 
which we can speak and understand 
all languages. This gift was be- 
stowed on the disciples by the out- 
pouring of the Holy Spirit on the day 
of Pentecost : 

" And they were all amazed and 
marvelled, saying one to another, 
Behold, are not all these which speak 

(88) 



Galileans ? And how hear we every 
man in our own tongue, wherein we 
were born ? Parthians, and Medes, 
and Elamites, and the dwellers in 
Mesopotamia, and in Judea, and 
Cappadocia, in Pontus, and Asia, 
Phrygia, and Pamphylia, in Egypt, 
and in the parts of Libya about 
Cyrene, and strangers of Rome, Jews 
and proselytes, Cretes and Arabians, 
we do hear them speak in our tongues 
the wonderful works of God." Acts 
ii. 7-1 1. 



(89) 



CHAPTER VII. 

NEW ACQUAINTANCES IN HEAVEN. 

Besides the recognition of friends 
whom we knew and loved on earth, 
we shall also form new acquaintances 
in heaven. Heaven is inhabited by 
the holy angels — an innumerable host, 
who were created before the world 
was made, and who lost not their 
estate, like the fallen angels. They 
are blessed, happy and immortal 
beings, whom God employs as his 
ministering spirits. Some of them 
are named in the Bible. The arch- 
angel Michael is one of them, who 
cast Satan into the bottomless pit and 

(90) 




THE ANNUNCIATION. 



H. HOFMANN. 



FRIENDS IN HEAVEN 



bound him in adamantine chains ; 
and the archangel Gabriel, who 
announced to the Virgin Mary that 
she should become the mother of 
the promised Messiah. The angels 
are distinguished into principalities 
and powers, into Cherubim and Sera- 
phim. We shall become personally 
acquainted with them and converse 
with them. They can relate to us 
the story of the creation of the 
heavens and the earth, when "the 
morning stars sang together and all 
the sons of God shouted for joy." 

And there we shall also meet the 

patriarchs, prophets, apostles, martyrs 

and reformers. There I expect to 

meet Adam and Eve, and they can 

6 (93) 



give us a description of Paradise, be- 
fore it was entered and cursed by sin; 
there I expect to meet Noah and 
converse with him ; the surging- of 
the flood is still fresh in his memory ; 
there I expect to meet Abraham, that 
man of mighty faith ; and Joseph and 
Moses and Joshua and Samuel and 
David, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Daniel ; and 
then I shall meet the worthies of the 
New Testament, Peter and James 
and John and Matthew and Andrew 
and Stephen, the first martyr, Paul 
and Barnabas and Timothy and the 
martyrs and reformers. Time would 
fail me to mention by name a 
thousandth part of them. These are 
the nobles of whom the world was 

(94) 




not worthy. What will be our 
wonder, surprise and joy when we 
shall meet those whose names we 
have often read in the Bible, and 
whose character and noble deeds we 
have so often admired ! But there 
will also be a countless host of the 
redeemed whose names we never 
heard on earth, the humble poor, 
whose deeds have never been written 
on the scroll of human fame, but who 
had a record in heaven, and were 
enrolled in the book of life. We 
shall meet them and converse with 
them also, and hear the story of their 
conversion and salvation through 
the blood of the Lamb. Yes, we shall 
there be permitted to associate with 

(95) 



that great multitude, which no man 
can number, of all nations and kin- 
dreds and peoples and tongues, who 
stand before the throne and before 
the Lamb, clothed with white robes, 
who "came out of great tribula- 
tion, and have washed their robes 
and made them white in the blood of 
the Lamb." "And God shall wipe 
away all tears from their eyes." 

But there is One above all others, 
whom we shall meet in heaven with 
exceeding great joy ; namely, our 
blessed Lord and Savior Jesus 
Christ. It would be no heaven with- 
out Christ. But there we shall see 
Jesus face to face and be like him. 
No pen can describe, no tongue can 

(96) 



tell, no heart can conceive the joy of 
the saved soul, at the first sight of the 
Lord Jesus in his glory. 

Oh, that will be joyful! joyful! joyful! 
When we shall meet, at Jesus' feet; 
Shall meet to part no more! 

Someone was asked how he ex- 
pected to be occupied during the 
eternal ages in heaven. He replied, 
I hope to spend the first ten thousand 
years in beholding the face of Jesus, 
my Savior ; after that I expect to 
have time enough to explore the 
universe and become acquainted with 
saints and angels. 



(97) 




CHAPTER VIII. 

OCCUPATION IN HEAVEN. 

How shall we spend eternity? 
What will be our occupation in 
heaven ? " And I heard a voice from 
heaven saying unto me, Write, 
Blessed are the dead which die in the 
Lord from henceforth : Yea, saith the 
Spirit, that they may rest from their 
labors ; and their works do follow 
them." Rev. xiv. 13. 

When a good man dies, we say, 
" He has gone to rest." Yes, he is 
at rest in that he shall not be weary 
any more, he shall not hunger or 
thirst any more, neither shall he be 

(98) 




A MINISTERING SPIRIT. 



J. K. THOMSON. 



sick or suffer any more pain, and he 
shall never die again. Yes, he shall 
rest from his labors on earth. But 
his rest does not consist in idleness 
or inactivity. We must not think 
that he shall do nothing in heaven 
but sing psalms ; yes, he shall join 
in singing the new song of Moses 
and the Lamb, but his most delightful 
work has only now really begun. 
The Savior says, In heaven the saints 
shall be like unto the angels, and 
the angels are declared to be min- 
istering spirits sent to them that are 
heirs of salvation ; and as they shall 
be like unto the angels, they shall 
also be employed like the angels. 
God governs the material universe 

(lOl) 



RECOGNITION OF OUR 



by fixed laws of nature, but the spirit- 
ual world he governs by the instru- 
mentality of intelligent agents ; 
namely, men and angels. No, we 
shall not spend eternity in indolence ! 

Has David hung up his harp, now 

i 

unstrung and broken, like the dusty 
armor in Westminster Abbey ? Has 

i 

Paul ceased to itinerate the universe 

after carrying the gospel to the ends 

of the earth ? Have Luther and 

Calvin and Knox and Wesley ceased 

studying the infinite attributes of 

God, and trying to understand the 

wonderful plan of salvation, which 
I 

the angels desired to look into ? 

Here we see through a glass darkly, 

but there we shall see face to face. 

i 

(I02) 



Our departed brother will enter the 
joy of his Lord, and be employed as 
one of God's ministering spirits to 
some child on earth ; he will see 
God in his glory ; he will admire 
the wonders of his works ; he will 
study his infinite perfections ; he will 
try to scale the height, fathom the 
depth, and measure the length and 
breadth of the love of God in Christ. 
And he will have plenty of time ; he 
will have all eternity to devote to 
this blessed employment. 

When we've been there ten thousand years, 

Bright shining as the sun, 
We've no less days to sing God's praise, 

Than when we first begun. 

(103) 



CHAPTER IX. 

HEAVEN NOT YET OPEN TO VIEW. 

The Savior once said in regard to 
little children, "Their angels do always 
behold the face of my Father which is 
in heaven." From this the beauti" 
ful idea of guardian angels is taken. 
And some bereaved Christians have 
cherished the belief that their own 
loved ones may have been appointed 
guardian angels over themselves. 
However that may be, the Scripture 
says, " He shall give his angels charge 
over thee, to keep thee in all thy 

ways. They shall bear thee up in 
their hands, lest thou dash thy foot 

against a stone." Ps. xci. n, 12. 

(104) 




I GUARDIAN ANGEL. 



B. PLOCKHORST. 



FRIENDS IN HEAVEN 



It is certain that the angels are 
round about us, and if we had the 
faculty to discern spirits we might 
even see them ; and as the redeemed 
in heaven are like unto the angels, 
it is not impossible for them to be 
near us, whenever they choose so to 
be. Some one might therefore ask, 
Would it not be pleasant and de- 
sirable, that we should have at least 
occasional intercourse with our de- 
parted friends, who might come to 
us from their glorious habitations, 
and revisit us on earth? And would 
it not be a blessed and happy 
privilege, if once in a while a window 
in heaven were opened to us, and we 
could see our friends there in glory ? 
(107) 



RECOGNITION OF OUR 



Yes, that might afford us a temporary 
happiness, but it would soon be 
followed by discontent with our lot on 
earth, and unfit us for the duties 
of this life. St. Paul says he was 
once translated to the third heaven 
and saw things there, and heard 
things there, which it is unlawful, or 
rather impossible in our language, to 
describe. He does labor to find 
words to describe the happiness of 
heaven, when he says, " Eye hath 
not seen, nor ear heard, neither 
have entered into the heart of man, 
the things which God hath prepared 
for them that love him." i Cor. ii. 
9. After that his ardent longing was 
to go away and be with Christ, and 
(108) 



receive from his hand the crown of 
glory laid up for him. The only rea- 
son why he was willing any longer 
to stay on earth was that he might 
be instrumental in bringing yet many 
others to the faith of Christ and the 
salvation of heaven. Therefore, a 
sight of heaven and our friends there 
in glory would most likely unfit us 
for the duties of life and absorb all 
our thoughts and desires to go away 
and join our loved ones in the 
mansions of our Father's house. 

Years ago I read an incident 
illustrative of this subject, which I 
will relate as near as I can from 
memory : A ship was sent off from a 
certain port to sail around the world. 
(109) 



The voyage lasted three years. 

When the ship returned, and the land 

of their nativity became visible, the 
sailors became very much excited. 

Some of them climbed up the masts 
to have a better view of the land ; as 
they drew nearer and could dis- 
tinguish objects, some pointed to the 
church steeples where they had wor- 
shiped in their childhood ; some 
could point out the houses where 
their parents and brothers and sisters 
lived ; as they drew nearer to port 
the excitement increased ; some of 
the sailors went to their chests, got 
their best clothes and put them on; 
some laughed and some wept for joy. 
But at last, when the ship came into 

(HO) 



FRIENDS IN HEAVEN 



port, and they saw and recognized 
their friends standing on the wharf, 
waving welcome to them and calling 
them by name, the crew could no 
longer be restrained or controlled. 
They hastened to the shore by every 
possible means, to embrace their 
fathers, mothers, wives, brothers and 
sisters, and another set of men had 
to be secured to bring the vessel to 
her mooring. 

Now, what would be the effect 
upon us, if heaven were opened to 
our view, and we could see the New 
Jerusalem with its gates of pearl and 
golden streets ; behold the saints 
standing in white before the throne, 
and hear them sing the new song of 

(in) 



Moses and the Lamb ; yea, if we 
could see and recognize our loved 
ones in the glory land, and behold them 
beckoning to us, and calling us by 
name ? Oh, the scene would be so 
overwhelming, that we should lose all 
interest in the affairs of this world. 
Who would want to work in our 
shops or fields ? Who would want 
to stand in stores and sell dry goods 
and groceries ? Who would want to 
stand in banks and spend their lives 
in counting money ? Who would 
want to build houses here, or keep 
them in order, when in view of our 
glorious home in the mansions of our 
Father's house ? Our one and all- 
absorbing wish and aspiration would 
(112) 



be to go away and be with Christ, 
to the disregard and neglect of every 
earthly duty. No, it would not be 
well to have heaven with all its 
glories and happiness opened to our 
view now. It would be too soon. 
Let us abide our time and serve the 
Lord a little longer, until Christ 
shall say to us, " Come, ye blessed 
of my Father, inherit the kingdom 
prepared for you from the foundation 
of the world." 

Yet the Lord does sometimes 
grant his saints a view of heaven 
and its glories in the moment just 
before the spirit leaves the body. 
Thus, when the proto-martyr, Ste- 
phen, was stoned to death, it is 

7 (H3) 



RECOGNITION OF OUR 

written of him : " But he, being full 
of the Holy Ghost, looked up stead- 
fastly into heaven, and saw the glory 
of God, and Jesus standing on the 
right hand of God, and said, Behold, 
I see the heavens opened, and the 
Son of man standing on the right 
hand of God." Acts vii. 55,56. 

The following was related in a 
sermon, by Rev. S. Domer, D. D., 
while pastor of the English Lutheran 
Church in Selinsgrove, Pa. I repeat 
it from memory, as I then heard it : 

A young Christian was lying on 
his death-bed, while his mother was 
watching by his side. He said to 
her, " Mother, my hands and feet are 
getting cold." After a while he said, 

(114) 



FRIENDS IN HEAVEN 



" Mother, I feel the cold coming up 
to my heart." Soon after he said, 
"Mother, it is getting dark, I cannot 
see you any more." But after a 
while he said again, " Mother, it is 
getting light again ; I see the angels 
and hear them sing." And then the 
angels carried his ransomed soul 
home to glory. 

When John Arndt, the author of 
Wahres Christenthum, (The True 
Christianity) lay on his death-bed he 
suddenly exclaimed, " We beheld his 
glory, the glory as ot the only be- 
gotten of the Father, full of grace 
and truth." His wife asked him 
when he had seen this glory. He 
replied, "Just now, I have seen it. 
(115) 




O, what a glory is this! It is the 
glory which no eye hath seen, no ear 
hath heard and hath not entered into 
the heart of man to conceive. This 
glory I have just now seen." Let 
me die the death of the righteous and 
let my last end be like his. 

Dr. S. S. Schmucker relates the 
following of his father, Dr. J. G. 
Schmucker : 

" For several months before his 
death he was much abstracted from 
the world, and engaged in almost 
constant communion with God. 
During this time he on one occasion 
was lying on his bed in the night 
watches, and called to my mother, 
who was at his side, ' Oh, if you could 
(116) 



FRIENDS IN HEAVEN 



see what I have seen beyond the 
Jordan of death, how happy you 
would be.' '' 

Heaven is not yet open to our 
view, and it is better thus. But a 
spiritual vision is vouchsafed to the 
eye of faith which, while not in con- 
flict with earth and its duties, sanctifies 
the life, makes heaven more real, and 
helps us to heed the Scriptural admo- 
nition, "Set your affection on things 
above." How true to the experience 
of many are these words of another : 
Our views of heaven change as our 
years increase. I can remember 
when my conception of heaven was 
chiefly associated with the glowing 
descriptions of the apocalypse. It 
(117) 



RECOGNITION OF OUR 



meant gates of pearl and golden 
streets, and multitudes of white-robed 
angels hymning a perpetual song, 
"Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Al- 
mighty." But there came a time 
when a beloved sister fell asleep, and 
thereafter her face was always asso- 
ciated with every thought of that 
celestial city. Then the dear father 
went, and then the first-born of the 
household, and then another, " with 
folded hands and dreamy eyes went 
through the gates of Paradise." And 
now all heaven is full of faces, and 
there are hands beckoning and voices 
calling. So more and more as the 
years pass do I realize the joyous 
significance of the Savior's words, 
" My Father's House." Heaven is 
home. 

(118) 



The Gathering Place. 

Life changes all our thoughts of heaven. 
At first we think of streets of gold, 
Of gates of pearl and dazzling light, 
Of shining wings and robes of white, 
And things all strange to mortal sight. 
But in the afterward of years 
It is a more familiar place — 
A home unhurt by sighs r or tears, 
Where waiteth many a well-known face. 
With passing months it comes more near; 
It grows more real day by day; 
Not strange or cold, but very dear, 
The glad homeland not far away, 
Where none are sick or poor or lone, 
The place where we shall find our own. 
And as we think of all we knew 
Who there have met to part no more, 
Our longing hearts desire home, too, 
With all the strife and trouble o'er. 

— Browning. 

(119) 



Objections Answered. 



Dr. Harbaugh has stated and 
answered the following objections 
which we quote from his excellent 
book : 

There are persons who, though 
they have any amount of positive 
proof in favor of a subject, never- 
theless doubt, as long as certain diffi- 
culties existing in their minds are 
not removed. 

They can always tell what they 
do not believe, and why they do 
not believe it ; but they can not 
so well say what they do believe, 
and why they believe it. 
(120) 



Many objections may be found 
always, even against a true doc- 
trine. Nothing is easier than to 
show that there are difficulties 
which lie in the way of truth. Let 
it, however, be remembered that if 
any doctrine can be proved to be 
true by positive evidence, a thous- 
and objections that may be raised 
against it cannot prove it untrue. 
It remains true, even if we should 
not be able to answer the objec- 
tions ; our failing to answer them 
proves nothing but our own limited 
knowledge. We must learn, first 
of all, in our search of truth, that 
our own ignorance is not its meas- 
ure. In regard to the doctrine be- 

(121) 



for us, however, we discover no 
objections which may not be fully 
answered. 

I. THE GREAT CHANGE WHICH WILL 

TAKE PLACE IN DEATH. 

"We shall all be changed." The 
change which, according to the 
Scriptures, is to take place, espe- 
cially in our bodies at the transition 
of death, will in many respects be 
great. 

A great change may take place, 
both in the body and spirit, with- 
out destroying those marks of 
identity and those peculiarities of 
character by which recognition 
takes place. The change which 

(122) 




LAZARUS'RESTORED-TCTHIS SISTERS. 



comes with death will consist, not 
in adding any thing entirely or es- 
sentially new, but only in an un- 
folding and perfecting of what is 
already at hand in us. There is a 
great difference between a small 
sapling and a full grown tree ; and 
yet great as the apparent change 
is, the marks of its identity con- 
tinue through all the stages of its 
evolution. In the different stages 
of human life, through infancy, 
childhood, youth, manhood, and 
age, the same being continues, car- 
rying with him his peculiarities, and 
preserves from one stage to the 
other those marks by which he is 
recognized as the same person. 
(125) 



RECOGNITION OF OUR 

There are features which run with 
marked prominence through all 
these transitions. 

That the change which awaits us 
is one, not of transformation, but 
of evolution, is evident from Scrip- 
ture representations of it. The 
apostle Paul represents the new 
celestial man as rising out of the 
old earthly man, as the new grain 
rises out of the old. The change 
is not so much in the outward 
form as in the inward potence 
which fills out and pervades the 
form with a new life. The orig- 
inal form will remain while the 
elements of corruption will be 
changed into that of incorruption. 

(126) 



The dishonor, which in various 
ways, and in various degrees, at- 
taches to our present life, will 
give way to glory. Weakness will 
be swallowed up in power. The 
natural will pass into the spiritual, 
the mortal into immortality. Now, 
all these changes are but risings 
from a lower to a higher life, 
which, though they involve great 
changes, are not in form, but in 
power. They may all take place 
without radically changing those 
familiar peculiarities which make 
recognition possible. As in life a 
person is changed from a sinner 
to a saint, while he still retains, 
to a great extent, the same ex- 
(127) 




ternal features ; so, the elements of 
power, glory and immortality may 
be unfolded in us, in our glorifi- 
cation, without producing any more 
change in the appearance of that 
side of our being with which we 
were wont to converse with our 
friends, than the positive condition 
of electricity does upon that which 
it fills with its mysterious fluid. 

The transfiguration of Christ 
upon the mount was no doubt in- 
tended, in part, to give the apos- 
tles a glimpse of what they might 
expect, when, " he should change 
their vile bodies, that they might 
be fashioned like unto his glorious 
body." There the change which 

(128) 



took place in their Master was great: 
" The fashion of his countenance was 
altered, and his raiment was white 
and glistening," "and his face did 
shine as the sun;" yet still they 
knew him from the rest amid that 
"excellent glory," and they "were 
eye-witnesses of his majesty." His 
glorious person was still, as to its 
external marks, what it was before, 
and could be recognized as his 
through the veil of holy light which 
enshrouded it. May not the same 
be the case with us in our glorified 
bodies ? 



(129) 



II. IF IT WERE TRUE, IT WOULD BE 



MORE CLEARLY REVEALED. 



It is said by way of objection : If 
this were a doctrine, true and to be 
believed, it would have been more 
directly, clearly, and fully revealed. 
If true, this doctrine is full ot conso- 
lation ; and it is therefore natural 
and reasonable, it is said, to think 
that He, who would not deprive 
His people of any source of comfort, 
would have spoken clearly on such 
an important point. 

Let us look at this objection. The 
fact that this doctrine is not often, 
and then only incidentally, mentioned 
is rather a proof in its favor than 

(130) 



against it. It shows that the truth 
of it was taken for granted at the 
time when it was thus incidentally 
alluded to — it was not necessary to 
propound it formally as a doctrine, 
but merely to allude to it as some- 
thing already universally believed. 
All Scripture allusions to it are made 
upon the supposition that it is an 
acknowledged truth. In this view 
of the matter an incidental allusion is 
even stronger than a direct assertion ; 
for while it has all the authority of a 
direct testimony, it shows at the same 
time the absence of all disposition or 
intention to deceive. Thus, if I say, 
I traveled under the rays of the hot 
sun, this is the strongest possible 

8 (131) 



proof that it was a clear day and in 
the summer. 

Moreover, there are many of the 
most important doctrines of the Scrip- 
tures resting on precisely the same 
ground as this, in this respect. Such, 
for instance, are the doctrine of the 
Holy Trinity, the necessity of making 
a profession of religion by a connec- 
tion with the church, the immortality 
of the soul, female communion, family 
worship, and other less prominent 
doctrines or duties, concerning which 
we have no doubt. Such doctrines 
existed in the church from the begin- 
ning, were carried down its stream in 
the flow of their own life ; they 
needed no positive statement, for 
(i3 2 ) 






FRIENDS IN HEAVEN 

they were established by the same 
evidence by which the mission of the 
church was established, and the mis- 
sion of those who alluded to these 
doctrines as true. Just so in refer- 
ence to this doctrine ; its existence 
in the favor of those inspired persons 
who allude to it as true is the strong- 
est evidence of its truth. 

III. THE HEAVENLY LIFE WILL BE 
MUCH HIGHER THAN THIS. 

It has been thought that heavenly 
recognition cannot take place, be- 
cause the heavenly life will be so 
much higher than this, and so far 
different from it, that all earthly rela- 
tions, connections and dependencies 
(133) 



RECOGNITION OF OUR 

must be swallowed up, superseded, 
or set aside. 

To this we reply that it is Scrip- 
tural to say that the future life will 
not be a destruction of this, but a 
continuation of it. We shall be higher 
beings, and different beings there, 
but not other beings. All our affec- 
tions will be vastly elevated, sancti- 
fied, increased and perfected, without 
any violent severing of them from 
their past life on earth. Here on 
earth when one becomes a Christian, 
he rises into higher relations and 
affinities than those in which he stood 
before ; but this does not annihilate 
his previous being ; it only perfects 
it. He does not, for instance, become 

(134) 



unfit for family relations and social 
life in general by this advancement, 
but rather the contrary. His new- 
relation to Christ does not supersede 
and destroy his old relations to his 
friends and fellow men. His life 
flows on as before, only in a holier 
stream. His affections still radiate, 
but with a serener and heavenlier 
light. So in heaven ; though intro- 
duced into higher and holier grades 
of social life, the soul will still draw 
after it what it loved in its state of 
grace on earth, and continue to turn 
towards it with the sweetest remem- 
brance. 



(i35) 



JJ.l_ I H!J!A I» JI j J i i n I 



RECOGNITION OF OUR 

IV. IT WOULD INTRODUCE PARTIALITY 
INTO HEAVEN. 

Will it not introduce partiality into 
heaven ? This question indicates an 
objection which is at first sight some- 
what plausible. It can, however, be 
easily and satisfactorily answered. 
Should we even find it necessary to 
believe that in heaven friends would 
love friends more than other saints, 
this could be without any evil effects. 
For there no feelings of jealousy will 
exist to take cognizance of it. No 
one will stop, in the general joy and 
harmony which will characterize the 
heavenly intercourse, to measure, 
with suspicious eye, the affections of 

(136) 



other saints, much less desire to 
attract any to himself to the dispar- 
agement of others. Suppose it even 
to be known there that kindred and 
kindred are peculiarly attached, it 
could not be regarded as an evil in 
heaven. Do Christians here on earth 
feel jealous of other Christians, be- 
cause they know them to be peculi- 
arly attached to their own kindred ? 
Certainly not. They rather praise 
them for it, and themselves rejoice in 
it ; and will not heaven be entirely 
free from all those unworthy feelings 
which would create difficulty there in 
the intercourse of saints made perfect 
in holy love ? 

In this life we may act from various 
(i37) 



motives, all of which may be right 
ones, though some may be subordi- 
nate to others ; so in heaven, we may 
exercise various affections, and if we 
should even grant that some are less 
high and excellent than others, they 
would not thereby be rendered im- 
proper. A small light is not dark- 
ness because it is not so large and 
bright as a larger one. We might as 
well say that children, in loving one 
another, must necessarily disparage 
their parents — or because stars shine 
they dishonor the moon. In this 
world saints have their chief enjoy- 
ments in direct communion with God, 
but this does not exclude and make 
unlawful those thousand little every- 
(138) 



day joys which fall to their lot, and 
make up their incidental and subordi- 
nate comforts. 

V. THE LOVE OF CHRIST WILL OCCUPY 
US ENTIRELY. 

It is said that in heaven Jesus and 
His love will employ our affections so 
entirely and eternally that we shall 
have no time nor desire to know and 
to be concerned about our friends ; 
and that even a wish to know friends, 
and to renew our particular affection 
for them, would be a disparagement 
to Christ. Some have expressed 
themselves with great extravagance 
on this point. This objection has the 
recommendation of having a zeal for 
(139) 




Christ, but it will hardly be found to 
be according to knowledge. Such 
expressions must be placed in the 
same class with those which speak, 
with affected zeal, of the pure spirit- 
uality of heaven — as not a place, 
but merely a state ; affirming that 
where Christ is, there is heaven, even 
if it were on earth or in hell. It is 
true that with Christ, and with the 

love of God shed abroad in our 
hearts, we have heavenly joys, but we 
are nevertheless not in heaven, unless 
we are in that place which is heaven. 
Where Christ is now, there is heaven ; 
and it is nowhere else, be our feel- 
ings what they may. In like manner, 
we may say that to be with Christ, 
(140) 



to behold His glory, and to enjoy 
His love, is the chief attraction of 
the heavenly world ; but the Scrip- 
tures nowhere countenance the idea 
that we shall do nothing there but 
stand like statues and gaze at 
Him. Such fancies betray a strange 
superficial extravagance. While the 
Lamb is the bright and glorious 
center, in whom all the rays of 
heavenly love meet, He is, at the 
same time, the Sun which warms, 
animates and enlivens all the so- 
cial circles of the saints which sur- 
round Him. While the saints love 
Him in the light and life of that 
love which He sheds around Him, 
they also see each other better 
(141) 



RECOGNITION OF OUR 

and love each other more in the 
same blessed light ; just as the 
brightness which makes the nat- 
ural sun itself so prominent to our 
view is the means, at the same 
time, of enabling us to see and 
know the objects around us. His 
presence there no more destroys 
the social life and love of heaven, 
than the sun makes the earth dark. 
It might with the same propriety 
be argued that particular attachments 
among saints on earth were a dis- 
paragement to Christ, and hindered 
our love to Him. This, however, is 
not the case, but it is the direct 
contrary ; for Christ by His example 
encouraged particular friendships — 
(142) 




WITH THE FAMILY AT BETHANY. 



H. HOFMANN. 



FRIENDS IN HEAVEN 



the family of Bethany and " the be- 
loved disciple" shared His peculiar 
affections. In like manner children 
that love each other are not thereby 
hindered, but assisted, in loving their 
parents. It cannot, therefore, be, 
that such particular attachments can, 
in any way, interfere with full, free 
and entire love to Christ. They do 
not so interfere in this life, and it 
cannot be shown that they will in the 
life to come. Love to Him, and love 
to the brethren, cannot be disjoined ; 
for the same life of love which joins 
us to Him joins us to each other. 
Where the one exists the other must 
also be found ; and the more we 
love our friends, whom we have seen, 
(i45) 



■^■a-j-g—j-^—— — - ■=-— -^— ■- - ■■-■■- ■■-...■,—,-„.. ..-..-._ .,_ - ;r ., [ - ; .--y- | . 



RECOGNITION OF OUR 



the more shall we love Christ, whom 
we have not seen. 



vi. Christ's answer to the 



SADDUCEES. 

An objection has been built upon 
the answer which Christ gave to the 
Sadducees, when they asked Him 
whose wife she, who had been the 
wife of seven, should be in the 
resurrection. The answer of the 
Savior was : " Ye do err, not know- 
ing the Scriptures, nor the power of 
God. For in the resurrection they 
neither marry, nor are given in 

marriage, but are as the angels of 
God in heaven." Matt. xxii. 29, 30. 

All that is here asserted is, that in 

(146) 



heaven they do not marry — it is by 
no means either said or intimated 
that they do not know each other. 
The Savior could have met the 
difficulty which they sought, in this 
instance, to throw in the way of the 
doctrine of the resurrection, by 
simply denying the doctrine of 
heavenly recognition ; and we may 
suppose that he would have done so, 
were it not true. He could have 
said to them : Your objection amounts 
to nothing ; for there is no knowl- 
edge of acquaintances, and no ex- 
tension of earthly ties beyond the 
grave — even husbands and wives 
will have no knowledge of each other 
there ; and . hence your question, 
(147) 



Whose wife shall she be of the seven? 
has no force by way of objection. 
He does not, however, resort to this 
simple way of silencing them. He 
does not say that they shall not know 
each other, but only that they shall 
not marry nor be given in marriage. 
The reason he gives for this is plain 
and proper — "they are as the angels 
of God in heaven" — or as Luke 
says, " neither can they die any 
more ; for they are equal to the 
angels;" not in every respect — not 
certainly in the being strangers to 
each other eternally ; but they are 
equally immortal as the angels : 
" they die no more." Because they 
die no more, they can need no more 
(148) 




reparations for losses through death 
by the means of the marriage institu- 
tion : hence this institution will not 
continue in heaven. This does not, 
in the least, intimate that the affec- 
tions begotten, and the friendships 
formed in this relation, shall not 
be renewed and continue in the 
heavenly social life. 

This passage may be paraphrased 
thus: "Ye Sadducees, who deny 
that there is a resurrection, and sup- 
pose that this instance gives you 
ground for such denial, do err in re- 
gard to the nature of the future life. 
The reason of your error is ignorance 
of the Scriptural idea of the reason of 
the matrimonial institution, which is 

9 (149) 



RECOGNITION OF OUR 

to people the earth, with the final 
object also of peopling heaven, by 
the increase of holy families. But 
there being no more deaths in 
heaven, the reason which induced 
Moses to command that the brother 
should take her to wife, viz. to ' raise 
up seed unto his brother,' does not 
there exist ; consequently, the 
marriage institution will not continue 
in the resurrection ; and hence your 
objection to the resurrection on this 
ground has no force." 



(150) 



FRIENDS IN HEAVEN 

VII. WE SHOULD MISS SOME WHO WILL 
NOT BE THERE. 

"There shall be no more death, neither 
sorrow, nor crying; neither shall there be 
any more pain; for the former things are 
passed away." — A voice from Heaven, Rev. 
xxi. 4. 

It has been objected, that if we 
shall be able to know our friends in 
heaven, we should miss some who 
will not be there. This, it has 
been thought, would introduce pain 
and distress into heaven ; for it can- 
not be, it is supposed, that even in 
heaven we should be able to endure 
without sorrow the absence of our 
friends — especially the thought that 
they are in the world of despair. 

(151) r 



RECOGNITION OF OUR 

i. In death, all ties which are not 
sanctified, and thus made eternal 
by the life and power of grace, must 
be dropped and left behind. 

There are many ties which are in 
no sense and in no degree gracious, 
ties that have not been formed by 
the life of religion, and which are 
not sustained and pervaded by it. 
There are ties in the formation of 
which religion has not in the least 
been recognized, and which have 
no religious end in view. All those 
between saints and sinners are of this 
kind. These must perish in death. 

Let it be well remembered that 
even the ties of kindred are merely 
and entirely natural and destructive, 
(152) 



FRIENDS IN HEAVEN 

unless they are elevated and sancti- 
fied by grace. 

2. We have positive and actual 
evidence that the knowledge of the 
fate of those that are lost, even 
where affection for them once was 
strong, is not incompatible with the 
full and happy enjoyment of heavenly 
felicity. 

The Savior, for instance, is per- 
fectly happy in heaven, with a full 
knowledge of the situation of the lost, 
and yet He once loved them. Will 
any one say that His love for them 
was not once as strong as ours can 
possibly be for any of our friends? 
He certainly did for these sinners 
what none of us would do for our 
(i53) 



kindred, while they are enemies to 
us. " He sticketh closer than a 
brother." Yet on account of their 
impenitency, His feelings towards 
them have undergone a change ; so 
that though He once distressed Him- 
self on their account, their situation 
does not now interfere with His 
heavenly felicity. Once their con- 
dition cost Him tears, but now He 
weeps no more ! May not we expect 
a similar change to take place in our 
feelings? Now, nature rebels 
against that thought, and is far from 
desiring such a change ; yet this is 
not the first time that God's good- 
ness and grace have done for us far 
better than our wishes. 
(iS4) 



FRIENDS IN HEAVEN 

The same may be said of the 
angels in glory. They once loved 
those angels which are now fallen. 
They know also their doom and pres- 
ent situation. Who will say that 
the love for each other which reigned 
in the holy hearts of angels, before 
the fall of some, was not as strong 
and tender as kindred love on earth 
can possibly be — especially as all 
earthly affection is tainted more or 
less by sin. Yet we know that 
their joys in heaven are not for 
one moment interrupted by painful 
thoughts of their lost companions. 
In like manner also angels in heaven 
are acquainted with the situation of 
lost spirits of men — those in whom 
(i55) 



RECOGNITION OF OUR 

they were interested, over whose 
repentance they waited to rejoice ; 
and though they are better acquainted 
than we can possibly be with the 
deep woes of the second death, yet 
they weep not, nor grieve, over their 
hapless fate. They contemplate the 
judgment of a righteous God, not 
with regret and sorrow, but with 
humility and adoring reverence. 

Though we may not feel ourselves 
able to decide correctly as to the 
way and manner in which this matter 
is adjusted, yet seeing that a similar 
relation between Christ, angels, and 
the lost involves no difficulty, we 
have satisfactory reason to rest 
calmly in the patience of faith, and 
(156) 



FRIENDS IN HEAVEN 

not to suffer difficulties, which we 
see have been and can be removed, 
to weaken or disturb our faith in 
the consoling- doctrine of heavenly 
recognition. 

3. The last and perhaps by far 
the most important consideration we 
have to offer by way of answering 
the objection before us is, that in 
heaven there will be such entire 
sympathy between us and God, that 
our wills will fall in entirely and 
cheerfully with His will. In the 
language of another: "We shall 
have no separation of desires or 
inclinations from Him. We shall 
see that all He does is wisest and 
best, and deserving of our unquali- 
(i57) 



fied approbation. Here we not un- 
frequently revolt against His appoint- 
ments, because we bear within us 
the remains of a corrupt nature ; or 
because we do not fully comprehend 
His designs ; or because in our 
hearts the affection for God has not 
that superiority over our affection 
for the objects of earth which it 
ought to have. But in heaven, where 
not only the dominion but the ex- 
istence of depravity shall be destroyed 
in our souls — in heaven, where we 
shall so far comprehend the reason 
of God's conduct as to perceive 
that His attributes must be destroyed 
if He acted otherwise — in heaven, 
where love to the creature will justly 

(158) 



be subordinated to love to the Creator, 
our wills shall be so absorbed in 
God's as to form but one with it ; 
and of course no murmur will escape 
— no pang rend our hearts — for any 
of His dealings with those whom we 
loved on earth." 



(i59) 



Not Changed but Glorified. 



Not changed but glorified. Oh, beauteous 
language 

For those who weep, 
Mourning the loss of some dear face 
departed, 

Fallen asleep. 
Hushed into silence, never more to comfort 

The hearts of men, 
Gone, like the sunshine of another country, 

Beyond our ken. 

O dearest dead, we saw thy white soul 

shining 

Behind the face, 

Bright with the beauty and celestial glory 

Of an immortal grace. 

What wonder that we stumble, faint and 

weeping, 

And sick with fears, 

Since thou hast left us — all alone with 

sorrow, 

And blind with tears. 
(160) 






FRIENDS IN HEAVEN 



Can it be possible no words shall welcome 

Our coming feet? 
How will it look, that face that we have 
cherished, 

When next we meet? 
Will it be changed, so glorified and saintly, 

That we shall know it not ? 
Will there be nothing that will say, "I 
love you," 

And "I have not forgot?" 

Oh! faithless heart, the same loved face 
transfigured 
Shall meet thee there, 
Less sad, less wistful, in immortal beauty, 

Divinely fair. 
The mortal veil, washed pure with many 
weepings, 
Is rent away, 
And the great soul, that sat within its 
prison, 
Hath found the day. 

(161) 



RECOGNITION OF OUR 

And we shall find once more, beyond 
earth's sorrows, 
Beyond these skies, 
In the fair city of the "sure foundations," 

Those heavenly eyes, 
With the same welcome, shining thro' their 
sweetness, 
That met us here; 
Eyes, from whose beauty God has banished 
weeping 
And wiped away the tear. 



(162) 



FRIENDS IN HEAVEN 



Extracts from Distinguished 
i\utl\ors. 

Dr. Martin Luther. 

The following- extract is part of a 
conversation which took place be- 
tween Luther, Justus Jonas, Michael 
Celius, and the Counts of Mansfield, 
on Wednesday evening, February 
17th, 1546, at Eisleben. Luther 
died next morning, the 18th, at 3 
o'clock. It is said that during that 
evening which preceded his death, 
"he spake many earnest words in 
relation to death and the eternal 
(163) 



world." The extract is taken from 
Luther's Works, vol. viii., p. 384. 
Jena edition, 1562. 

"The same evening Dr. Luther 
made remarks on the question : 
Whether in the future blessed and 
eternal assembly and church we 
shall know each other. And as 
we anxiously desired to know his 
opinion, he said : How did Adam 
do? He had never in his life seen 
Eve — he lay and slept — yet, when 
he awoke, he did not say, Whence 
did you come ? who are you ? but 
he said : ' This is now bone of my 
bone, and flesh of my flesh.' How 
did he know that this woman did 
not spring forth from a stone? He 

(164) 



FRIENDS IN HEAVEN 

knew it because he was full of 
the Holy Spirit, and in possession 
of the true knowledge of God. 
Into this knowledge and image we 
will, in the future life, again be 
renewed in Christ ; so that we will 
know father, mother and one an- 
other, on sight, better than did 
Adam and Eve." 

Melanchthon, Cruciger, Ole- 

vianus, scaliger. 

"Melanchthon," says Bishop Bur- 
gess, "a few days before his death, 
told Camerarius that he trusted 
their friendship should be cultivated 
and perpetuated in another world. 
Cruciger, another of the school 

10 (165) 



of the Reformers, spoke, in his 
last hours, of meeting and recog- 
nition. Casper Olevianus, a divine 
of Heidelberg, when his son had 
been summoned to see him before 
he should die, sent to him also the 
message, that ' he need not hurry : 
they should see one another in 
eternal life.' So Joseph Scaliger 
spoke of ' soon meeting and embrac- 
ing, no longer the subjects of age 
and infirmity.' v How precious is 
this testimony, in favor of this 
doctrine of heavenly recognition ; 
showing the power which the sweet 
social attractions of heaven exercised 
over these strong and earnest minds, 
in those stormy times ! The firma- 
(166) 



FRIENDS IN HEAVEN 

ment of the church rolled in tempests, 
but through the darkness broke this 
soft light from a serener world upon 
their souls — the more precious at 
such a time. — Harbaugh. 

Melanchthon and Camerarius. 

When Melanchthon was near his 
end, his intimate friend Camerarius 
visited him for the last time. Once 
more the two friends sat together 
on the same bench standing against 
the wall, holding each other by the 
hands. Then Melanchthon began . 
" My dear brother, we have been 
good friends during forty years, 
and have loved each other, not from 
interested motives, but from heart- 
(167) 



RECOGNITION OF OUR 

felt affection. We have both been 
schoolmasters and faithful com- 
panions, each in his own place, and 
I hope to God our work has not 
been in vain, but shall have produced 
great good. If it is God's will that 
I shall die, we will continue our 
friendship unbroken in the future 
life." Then they took an affectionate 
leave of each other. 

Rev. William Jay. 

It has been asked, Shall we know 
each other in heaven ? Suppose you 
should not ; you may be assured of 
this, that nothing will be wanting 
to your happiness. But oh ! you say, 
how would the thought affect me 
(168) 




CHERUB CHOIR, 



SIR JOSHUA REYNOLDS. 



FRIENDS IN HEAVEN 

now ! There is the babe that was 
torn from my bosom ; how lovely 
then, but a cherub now ! There is 
the friend, who was as mine own 
soul, with whom I took sweet 
counsel, and went to the house of 
God in company. There is the 
minister — whose preaching turned 
my feet into the path of peace — 
whose words were to me a well of 
life. There is the beloved mother, 
on whose knees I first laid my little 
hands to pray, and whose lips first 
taught my tongue to pronounce the 
name of Jesus ! And are these 
removed from us for ever? Shall 
we recognize them no more ? — 
Cease your anxieties. Can memory 
(171) 



be annihilated? Did not Peter, 
James and John know Moses and 
Elias ? Does not the Savior inform 
us that they who have made friends 
of the mammon of unrighteousness 
shall be received by them into ever- 
lasting habitations ? Does not Paul 
tell the Thessalonians that they are 
his hope, and joy, and crown, at 
the coming of our Lord Jesus 
Christ? 

Archdeacon William Paley. 

If this (Col. i. 28) be rightly in- 
terpreted, then it affords the man- 
ifest and necessary inference, that 
the saints in a future life will 
meet and be known again to one 
(172) 



another ; for how, without knowing 
again his converts, in their new 
and glorious state, could St. Paul 
desire or expect to present them 
at the last day? 

Dr. George Christian Knapp, 

Professor of Theology in the Uni- 
versity of Halle. 

According to the representations 
contained in the Holy Scriptures, 
the saints will dwell together in the 
future world, and form, as it were, 
a kingdom or state of God. They 
will there partake of a common 
felicity. Their enjoyment will doubt- 
less be very much heightened by 
friendship, and by their confiding 
(173) 



intercourse with each other. We 
must, however, separate all earthly 
imperfections from our conceptions 
of this heavenly society. But that 
we shall there recognize our former 
friends, and shall be again associated 
with them, was uniformly believed 
by all antiquity. This idea was 
admitted as altogether rational, and 
as a consoling thought, by the most 
distinguished ancient philosophers. 
Even reason regards this as in a 
high degree probable ; but to one 
who believes the Holy Scriptures it 
cannot be a matter of doubt and 
conjecture. 



(174) 



FRIENDS IN HEAVEN 

Rev. Dr. John Tillotson, 
Archbishop of Canterbury. 
When we come to heaven we 
shall meet with all those excellent 
persons, those brave minds, those 
innocent and charitable souls, whom 
we have seen, and heard, and read 
of in the world. There we shall 
meet many of our dear relations 
and intimate friends, and perhaps 
with many of our enemies, to whom 
we shall then be perfectly reconciled, 
notwithstanding all the warm con- 
tests and peevish differences which 
we had with them in this world, 
even about matters of religion. 
For heaven is a state of perfect 
love and friendship. 
(i75) 



Bishop Hall. 

Thou hast lost thy friend: — say 
rather, thou hast parted with him. 
That is properly lost which is past 
all recovery, which we are out of 
hope to see any more. It is not 
so with this friend thou mournest 
for; he is but gone home a little 
before thee; thou art following 
him; you two shall meet in your 
Father's house, and enjoy each 
other more happily than you could 
have done here below. 

Melvill. 

It is yet but a little while, and 
we shall be delivered from the 
burden and the conflict, and, with 

(176) 



all those who have preceded us in 
the righteous struggle, enjoy the 
deep raptures of a Mediator's 
presence. Then, reunited to the 
friends with whom we took sweet 
counsel upon earth, we shall re- 
count our toil only to heighten 
our ecstacy; and call to mind the 
tug and the din of war, only that, 
with a more bounding throb, and 
a richer song, we may feel and 
celebrate the wonders of redemp- 
tion. 

John Calvin. 

When Calvin was near his end, 
Farel, his early and faithful friend, 
and then a venerable sage of 
eighty years, desired once more to 

(i77) 



RECOGNITION OF OUR 

see him in the flesh. Calvin dis- 
suaded him — though he did never- 
theless afterwards come from 
Neufchatel to Geneva, on foot, to 
see his friend once more, and for 
the last time. In his letter to 
Farel, in which he takes his final 
leave from him, as he then sup- 
posed, he says: "God bless you, 
best and noblest brother; and if 
God permits you still longer to 
live, forget not the tie that binds 
us, which will be just as agreeable 
to us in heaven as it has been 
useful to the church on earth." 
Rev. John Newton. 

I need not say to myself, or 
my dear friends who are in the 

(178) 



FRIENDS IN HEAVEN 

Lord, Quo nunc abibis in loco? 
We know where they are and how 
employed. There I humbly trust 
my dear Mary is waiting for me, 
and in the Lord's own time I hope 
to join with her and all the re- 
deemed in praising the Lamb, once 
upon the cross, now upon the 
throne of glory. 

Rev. Richard Baxter. 

I must confess, as the experience 
of my own soul, that the expecta- 
tion of loving my friends in heaven 
principally kindles my love to them 
on earth. If I thought that I 
should never know them, and con- 
sequently never love them after 

(179) 



this life is ended, I should in rea- 
son number them with temporal 
things, and love them as such. 
But I now delight to converse with 
my pious friends, in a firm persua- 
sion that I shall converse with them 
for ever; and I take comfort in 
those of them that are dead or 
absent, as believing I shall shortly 
meet them in heaven and love 
them with a heavenly love that 
shall there be perfected. 

Dr. Thomas Chalmers. 

Tell us if Christianity does not 
throw a pleasing radiance around 
childhood. And should any par- 
ent who hears us feel softened 
(180) 




CHRIST BLESSING LITTLE CHILDREN. 



H. HOFMANN 



FRIENDS IN HEAVEN 

by the remembrance of the light 
that twinkled a few short months 
under his roof, and at the end of 
its little period expired, we can not 
think that we venture too far, when 
we say that he has only to perse- 
vere in the faith and in the follow- 
ing of the Gospel, and that very 
light will again shine upon him in 
heaven. The blossom which with- 
ered here upon its stalk has been 
transplanted there to a place of en- 
durance; and it will then gladden 
that eye which now weeps out the 
agony of an affection that has been 
sorely wounded; and, in the name 
of Him, who, if on earth, would 
have wept along with them, do we 
(183) 



RECOGNITION OF OUR 

bid all believers present to sorrow 
not even as others which have no 
hope; but to take comfort in the 
hope of that country where there 
is no sorrow and no separation. 

Dr. Doddridge. 

Let me be thankful for the 
pleasing hope that though God 
loves my child too well to permit 
it to return to me, he will ere long 
bring me to it. And then that en- 
deared paternal affection, which 
would have been a cord to tie me 
to earth, and have added new 
pangs to my removal from it, will 
be as a golden chain to draw me 
upwards, and add one further 
(184) 



charm and joy even to Paradise 
itself. Was this my desolation? 
This my sorrow? To part with thee 
for a few days, that I might receive 
thee for ever, (Philemon, ver. 15,) 
and find thee what thou art? It is 
for no language but that of heaven 
to describe the sacred joy which 
such a meeting must occasion. 

Ulrich Zwinglius, 

The Swiss Reformer. 

There you may hope to see 
the society, the assembly, and the 
dwelling together, of all the holy, 
wise, faithful, heroic, firm and vir- 
tuous, who have lived since the 
beginning of the world. There you 
(185) 



RECOGNITION OF OUR 

will see the two Adams, the 
saved and the Savior. There you 
will see Abel, Enoch, Noah, Abra- 
ham, Isaac, Jacob, Judah, Moses, 
Joshua, Gideon, Samuel, Phineas, 
Elijah, Elisha, Isaiah, and the 
mother of God of whom he has 
prophesied. There you will see 
David, Hezekiah, Josiah, John the 
Baptist, Peter, Paul, etc. There 
you will see yours who have gone 
before you, and all your forefathers 
who have departed this life in the 
faith. In a word, no virtuous per- 
son, no holy mind, no believing 
soul, has lived from the beginning 
of the world, or shall yet live, 
that you shall not there meet 

with God. 

(186) 



FRIENDS IN HEAVEN 



Fenelon. 

If we are sorrowing under a mis- 
fortune, of which this world affords 
no alleviation, the death of those 
most dear to us, let us humbly 
offer to our God the beloved whom 
we have lost. And what, after all, 
have we lost? the remaining days 
of a being whom we indeed loved, 
but whose happiness we do not 
consider in our regret; who, per- 
haps, was not happy here, but who 
certainly must be much happier 
with God ; and whom we shall meet 
again, not in this dark and sorrow- 
ful scene, but in the bright regions 
of eternal day, and partake in the 
inexpressible happiness of eternity. 
(187) 



He has placed the friends whom 
He has taken from us in safety, to 
restore them to us in eternity. He 
has deprived us of them, that he 
may teach us to love them with a 
pure love, a love that we may en- 
joy in His presence for ever ; He 
confers a greater blessing than we 
were capable of desiring. 

Very soon they who are sepa- 
rated will be reunited, and there 
will appear no trace of the separa- 
tion. They who are about to set 
out on a journey ought not to feel 
themselves far distant from those 
who have gone to the same country 
a few days before. Life is like a 
torrent ; the past is but a dream ; 
(188) 



the present, while we are thinking 
of it, escapes us, and is precipitated 
into the same abyss that has swal- 
lowed up the past; the future will 
not be of a different nature ; it will 
pass as rapidly. A few moments, 
and a few more, and all will be 
ended; what has appeared long 
and tedious will seem short when 
it is finished. 

Rev. Dr. Edwards. 

It is reasonable to believe that 
the saints shall know that they had 
such and such a relation to one 
another when they were on earth. 
The father shall know that such a 
one was his child ; the husband 
(189) 



shall remember that such a one 
was his wife ; the spiritual guide 
shall know that such belonged to 
his flock ; and so all other relations 
of persons shall be renewed and 
known in heaven. The ground of 
which assertion is this, that the 
soul of man is of that nature that 
it depends not on the body and 
sense, and, therefore, being sepa- 
rated, knows all that it knew in 
the body. And for this reason it is 
not to be doubted that it arrives 
in the other world with the same 
designs and inclinations it had here. 
So that the delights of conversation 
are continued in heaven. Friends 
and relations are familiar and free 
(190) 



FRIENDS IN HEAVEN 

with one another, and call to mind 
their former circumstances and 
concerns in the world, so far as 
they may be serviceable to advance 
their happiness. 

Rev. S. S. Schmucker, D. D., 

Professor of Theology, Gettysburg, 
Pennsylvania. 

And how could Abraham's bosom, 
the region of the blessed, be other 
than a state of enjoyment to the 
Christian ? There we shall see 
Lazarus, and be comforted with 
him ! There we shall see father 
Abraham, and rest from all our 
sorrows, reclining on his bosom ! 
There we . shall see the ancient 
(191) 



patriarchs and prophets! There we 
shall see Jeremiah, who wept over 
the desolation of Israel; and Daniel, 
who, in defiance of the king and 
all his nobles, prayed three times a 
day to his God, and whom his God 
saved from the mouth of the lions! 
There we shall find the apostles, 
and Luther, and Calvin, and Zwing- 
lius, and all that host of worthies 
of whom the world was not worthy, 
who, amid a wicked and perverse 
generation, maintained their fidelity 
to the end, and received not the 
mark of the beast. How can the 
place of departed spirits fail to be 
a place of joy to the Chistian ? for 
there he shall meet all those pious 
(192) 




H. HOFMANN. 



JAIRUS RECEIVES AGAIN HIS'DAUGHTER. 



FRIENDS IN HEAVEN 



relatives and friends whom heaven 
indulgent gave to him awhile, and 
heaven mysterious soon resumed 



again. 



Rev. William Dodd, D. D. 

This is the joy, this is the grand 
source of consolation under the loss 
of friends, — we shall meet again ! 
They are delivered from their trials, 
while we are left behind a few 
weary years longer; and behold, 
the time of our departure also 
cometh, when we shall follow our 
friends, and be for ever with them 
and with the Lord! There shall 
the enraptured parents receive again 
their much-loved child ; there shall 
(i95) 



the child, with transport, meet again 
those parents in joy, over whose 
graves, with filial duty, he dropped 
the affectionate tear ; there shall 
the disconsolate widow cease her 
complaints ; and her orphans, — or- 
phans now no more, — shall tell 
the sad tale of their distress to the 
husband, the father ; distress even 
pleasing to recollect, now that 
happiness is its result, and heaven 
its end ! There shall the soft 
sympathies of endearing friendship 
be renewed ; affectionate sisters 
shall congratulate each other, and 
faithful friends again shall mingle 
converse, interests, amities, and 
walk high in bliss with God Himself. 
(196) 



FRIENDS IN HEAVEN 



Bunyan's Dying Words. 

Weep not for me, but for your- 
selves. I go to the Father of our 
Lord Jesus Christ, who will no 
doubt receive me, though a sinner, 
through the medium of our Lord 
Jesus Christ, where I hope we 
shall ere long meet, to sing the 
new song and remain happy for 
ever, in a world without end. 
Amen. 

George Herbert. 

My hope is that I shall shortly 
leave this vallev of tears, and be 
free from all fevers and pains ; 
and, which will be a more happy 
condition, I shall be free from sin, 
(i97) 



RECOGNITION OF OUR 



and all the temptations and anxieties 
that attend it ; and this being past, 
I shall dwell in the New Jerusalem ; 
dwell there with men made perfect; 
dwell where these eyes shall see 
my Master and Savior Jesus ; and 
with Him see my dear mother, and 
all my relations and friends. But 
I must die, or not come to that 
happy place. 

Rev. John James, D. D., 

Prebendary of Peter sb or ough. 

It is no dreaming fancy to ex- 
pect, that in another world we 
shall preserve our identity — shall 
know and be known even as in 
this. Let the mourner in Zion 
(198) 



FRIENDS IN HEAVEN 

continue "patient in well-doing;" 
"looking for and hasting to the 
coming of the Lord," when shall 
begin the reunion of kindred spir- 
its, whom in this world death had 
separated. Parent to child, sister 
to brother, husband to wife, friend 
to friend, shall then be restored — 
a blessed communion of saints, 
whom nor sin nor sorrow shall 
sever more. 

Lavel. 

Let those mourn without meas- 
ure who mourn without hope. The 
husbandman does not mourn when 
he casts his seed into the ground. 
He expects to receive it again, 
(199) 



RECOGNITION OF OUR 

and much more. The same hope 
have we respecting our friends 
who have died in the faith. "I 
would not have you ignorant," 
says Paul, "concerning them who 
are asleep, that ye sorrow not as 
others who have no hope ; for if 
we believe that Jesus died and 
rose again, even so them also 
who sleep in Jesus will God bring 
with him." He seems to say: 
"Look not on the dead as lost. 
They are not annihilated. Indeed, 
they are not dead. They only 
sleep; and they sleep to wake 
again." You do not lament over 
your children or friends, while 
slumbering on their beds. Consider 

(200) 



FRIENDS IN HEAVEN 






death as a sleep from which they 
shall certainly awake. Even a 
heathen philosopher could say, that 
he enjoyed his friends, expecting 
to part with them ; and parted 
with them, expecting to see them 
again. And shall a heathen excel 
a Christian in bearing affliction 
with cheerfulness? 

Rev. Thomas Smyth, D. D. 

Can we not with David rejoic- 
ingly declare, "They can not come 
to us, but we can go to them"? 
Yes, we can go to them. "They 
are not lost, but gone before." 
There in that world of light, and 
love, and joy, they await our com- 
(201) 



RECOGNITION OF OUR 



ing. There do they beckon us to 
ascend. There do they stand 
ready to welcome us. There may 
we meet them, when a few more 
suns or seasons shall have cast 
their departing shadows upon our 
silent grave. Then shall our joy 
be full and our sorrows ended, and 
all tears wiped from our eyes. 
Death separates, but it can never 
disunite those who are bound to- 
gether in Christ Jesus. To them, 
death in his power of an endless 
separation is abolished. It is no 
more death, but a sweet departure, 
a journey from earth to heaven. 
Our children are still ours. We 
are still their parents. We are yet 

(202) 



one family — one in memory — one in 
hope — one in spirit. Our children 
are yet with us, and dwell with us 
in our sweetest, fondest recollec- 
tions. We too are yet with them 
in the bright anticipations of our 

reunion with them, in the glories 
of the upper sanctuary. We min- 
gle together indeed no more in 
sorrow and in pain, 

But we shall join love's buried ones again 
In endless bands, and in eternal peace. 

Rev. Theophilus Stork, D. D. 

The spiritual world is no longer 
a region of shadows, for loved and 
cherished friends dwell there. Fa- 
miliar voices are speaking there. 

12 (203) 



Hearts, whose pulses of love we 
have felt here, throb there un- 
changed, except as their earthly- 
graces have brightened into a heav- 
enly glory. If it is home to dwell 
with those we love, how surely and 
rapidly homes are building for us 
in the unseen world. The cloud of 
witnesses is gathering, and, when 
we depart from earth, we shall not 
go as exiles to a land of strangers. 
How beautiful is that description 
of the welcome of the new-born 
soul to the spirit-land by the an- 
gels, whose every look was tender- 
ness and every utterance musical 
with joy : 

(204) 



"Welcome to heaven, dear brother, wel- 
come home! 

Welcome to thine inheritance of life! 

Welcome forever to thy Savior's joy! 

Thy work is done, thy pilgrimage is past; 

Thy guardian angel's vigil is fulfill 'd; 

Thy parents await thee in the bowers of 
bliss ; 

Thy infant babes have woven wreaths for 
thee; 

Thy brethren, who have entered into rest, 

Long for thy coming ; and the angel choirs 

Are ready with their symphonies of praise." 

How dear to Christian hope is 
the promise of Jesus to the sor- 
rowing disciples just before his de- 
parture : "I go to prepare a place 
for you." And is it irreverent to 
think that all the loved in Jesus 
who depart from us are going to 
(205) 



RECOGNITION OF OUR 



prepare a place, a home for us ? 
And when that place is thus pre- 
pared, the touch of the angel of 
death to our own dying lips is 
but the kiss of welcome to that 
eternal home. 

Lift up your tearful eyes, ye 
children of sadness and bereave- 
ment, and behold that great cloud 
of witnesses ! Look up to Jesus, 
" the author and finisher of our 
faith." The departure of loved ones 
is a sorrow which shades the 
earth, but opens heaven. How 
these witnesses by their memories 
consecrate and transfigure our 
homes on earth. The child de- 
parted may now be sitting in the 
(206) 



FRIENDS IN HEAVEN 



midst of us, like the child whom 
Jesus once placed in the midst of 
his disciples, to reveal to the heart 
the spirit of heaven. It may be 

near to whisper messages from the 
Father more directly to the soul. 
Every Christian friend departed 
may in spirit be walking with us 
by the way, causing our hearts to 
rejoice within us by opening to us 
the deep things of God, though, 
like the disciples of old, our eyes 
are holden that we see it not. 
Yes, we are encompassed with a 
cloud of witnesses, who, through 
faith and patience, now inherit the 
promises. And they speak to us, 
and beckon us to their bright and 
(207) 



RECOGNITION OF OUR 

happy home. The departed mother 
may be one of the angels who 
watch over the child. The glorified 
child may come with consolation to 
the weeping mother. And while 
we linger at the tomb of the loved, 
whither we have gone to embalm 
them anew in our memory, they 
may be standing as it were behind 
us, as the risen Jesus stood behind 
Mary at the sepulchre. They do 
not call us by name, and reveal 
their presence as Jesus revealed 
Himself to Mary ; yet they may 
whisper thoughts within our hearts 
which bid us turn and follow them 
in the path of their bright ascen- 
sion. 

(208) 







■ . 



^*£»KlPf 



' 



MARY AT THE[SEPULCHER. 



H HOFMANN. 



These witnesses make the spirit- 
ual world real to the mind and 
heart, and hallow this world by 
their memories and purity. They 
speak from the heavens as all-en- 
compassing angels. They utter a 
glorious testimony on earth, and 
brighten to faith the unseen world. 
How beautiful the ministry of these 
ascended spirits ! How bright and 
lovely the visions of our heavenly 
home, as we think of the many 
friends and loved ones that have 
been gathered from our earthly 
households into that immortal com- 
pany ! Ye heavenly witnesses, the 
cloud of shining ones, compass us 
about with your sacred memories ; 

(211) 



RECOGNITION OF OUR 



with the testimonies of your holy 
lives and peaceful deaths ; with 
the ministries which are still per- 
mitted you in the Father's Provi- 
dence. Compass us about that we 
may "run with patience the race 
that is set before us, looking unto 
Jesus," until we are taken into 
your bright companionship, into 
the pure and unending fellowship 
of the redeemed. And, oh, what 
unspeakable ecstacy of joy, when 
the veil is lifted, and we see 
these witnesses that encompassed 
our path, and with them behold 
the Lamb in the midst of the 
throne ! And in that final apoca- 
lypse of the spiritual world we 
(212) 



shall see the loved ones gone be- 
fore, and know them as they wel- 
come us to the heavenly home. 
How beautiful and true is that 
description of Bickersteth of the 
parent and the children meeting 
in heaven ! 

"And when I saw my little lambs un- 
changed, 
And heard them fondly call me by my 

name, 
'Then is the bond of parent and of child 
Indissoluble,' I exclaim'd, and drew 
Them closer to my heart and wept for 
joy." 

James M. MacDonald. 

It would not be the heaven 

which the Bible promises, though 

all our friends were there, without 

(213) 



the presence of the blessed Re- 
deemer. It is to see Jesus and 
be like Him upon which our 
hearts should be principally set. 
But there need be no doubt, on 
this account, about our knowing 
in heaven those whom we knew 
and loved on earth. Indeed, such 
knowledge will serve to discover 
to us, more fully, the glory and 
the honor due to the blessed Re- 
deemer. . . The purity of every 
saved sinner will reflect the infinite 
purity of the Lamb in whose 
blood they have washed their 
robes and made them white. To 
admire the silver beauty of the 
moon and planets of our nocturnal 
(214) 



heavens, is but another way of 
admiring the light of that superior, 
central orb, which they do but 
reflect. To know, therefore, and 
love our friends, when they are 
made to reflect more perfectly 
their Redeemer's glory in heaven, 
is but another mode of adoring 
Him who is "the light thereof." 

Christian fellowship is now found 
to be one of the chief sources of 
pious joy. The hearts of Chris- 
tians, as they talk of the things 
of the kingdom, and of God's 
gracious dealings with their souls, 
often " burn within" them ; and 
seasons of worship become peculiar 
seasons of eternal love and joy. 
(215) 



We sing : 

Our souls thy love together knit, 

Cemented, mixed in one, 
One hope, one heart, one mind, one voice, 

Tis heaven on earth begun. 

Our hearts have often burned within, 

And glowed with sacred fire, 
While Jesus spake and fed and blessed, 

And filled the enlarged desire. 

Or as in another sweet hymn : 

Blest be the tie that binds 
Our hearts in Christian love, 

The fellowship of kindred minds 
Is like to that above. 

Before our Father's throne, 

We pour our ardent prayers; 
Our fears, our hopes, our aims are one, 

Our comforts and our cares. 

(216) 



FRIENDS IN HEAVEN 



We share our mutual woes, 

Our mutual burdens bear, 
And often for each other flows 

The sympathizing tear. 

When we asunder part, 

It gives us inward pain; 
But we shall still be joined in heart, 

And hope to meet again. 

From sorrow, toil and pain, 

And sin we shall be free ; 
And perfect love and friendship reign, 

Through all eternity. 

"My Father's House:" It is 
true we shall have no "mutual 
burdens" to bear in heaven, and 
shall never shed for each other 
"the sympathizing tear," even as 
we shall never "asunder part;" 
(217) 



but shall we have no * 'mutual 
joys to share?" Shall we not 
' 'still be joined in heart," when we 
meet again, 

And perfect love and friendship reign, 
Through all eternity? 

Dr. Timothy Dwight. 

With the Heaven of heavens we 
have a continual and most import- 
ant concern. This glorious and de- 
lightful world is the place to which 
all our ultimate views are directed 
by our Maker ; the home to 
which he invites us to look as our 
final rest from every trouble, and 
the final seat of all the enjoyments 
which we are capable of attaining. 
(218) 



FRIENDS IN HEAVEN 



With its inhabitants we shall, if we 
are wise, become familiarly ac- 
quainted, and intimately united, and 
shall live in the midst of them, 
through ages which can not end. 

Rev. Ezra Keller, D. D. 
On the 1 8th of February, in the 
year 1546, the great Luther closed 
his eventful career, in the 63rd 
year of his age. How happy will 
I be to meet this man of God in 
glory, to hear him recount his 
trials, and the progress of Divine 
grace in his heart, and the lead- 
ing Providence in his useful life. 
May my life be as humble, if pos- 
sible, as useful, and its close as 

peaceful as his. 

(219) 



Rev. Albert Barnes, D. D. 

When we part from our friends 
we should cheerfully and confident- 
ly commit them to the protection 
of the God whom they serve, and 
remember that the parting of Chris- 
tians, though for life, will be 
short ; and the blessedness of that 
future meeting will be greatly 
heightened by all the sorrows and 
self-denials of separation here, and 
by all the benefits which such a 
separation may be the means of 
conveying to a dying world. That 
mother will meet with joy, in heav- 
en, the son from whom, with many 
(220) 



tears, she was sundered when he 
entered on a missionary life; and, 
surrounded with many ransomed 
heathen, heaven will be made more 
blessed and eternity more happy. 



13 (221) 



RECOGNITION OP OUR 



Heaven. 



Negative Features, 
or the Things that 
Will Not be There. 

Indestructible. 

Undefilable. 

Unchangeable. 

No crying. 

No tears. 

No pain. 

No sorrow. 

No death. 

No burning sun. 

No cold nor heat. 

No night. 

No hunger. 

No thirst. 

No bad men. 

No sin. 

No curse. 



Positive Features, 
or the Things that 
Will be There. 

The city of our God — the 
heavenly Jerusalem. 

Beautiful waters. 

Delicious fruits. 

Sure healing for the nations. 

Populous with happy people. 

Beautiful garments. 

Enchanting music. 

Devout worship. 

A just Ruler. 

An eternal kingdom. 

The grandest capitol. 

Many mansions. 

We shall be kings and priests 
unto God, and shall reign 
forever and ever. 



(222) 




B. PLOCKHORST. 



CHRIST THE CONSOLER. 



■ ■' ' ■■ " ■■ I'll ' " ' ' • '■ ■■■111 " ' ■■■ ■»■ ■ 



FRIENDS IN HEAVEN 



Selections from the Poets. 

Most Christians have sung the 
doctrine of recognition in public 
and private worship, perhaps with- 
out thought or reflection on the 
consoling truths they were singing. 
We conclude the volume with 
selections from the poets, including 
both sacred hymns and other poet- 
ical gems ; and we feel assured 
that they will find an echo in the 
hearts of our readers. 

Home Sweet Home. 

/HNlD scenes of confusion and creature 

complaints, 
How sweet to my soul is communion with 

saints, 

(225) 



To find at the banquet of mercy there's 

room, 
And feel in the presence of Jesus at home ! 
Home, home, sweet, sweet home! 
Prepare me, dear Savior, for glory, my home. 



Jerusalem, the Golden. 

JERUSALEM, the Golden, 

Methinks each flower that blows 
And every bird asinging 

Of thee some secret knows. 
I know not what the flowers 

Can feel or singers see, 
But all these summer raptures 

Are prophecies of thee. 

Jerusalem, the Golden, 
When sunset's in the west, 

It seems thy gate of glory, 
Thou city of the blest ! 
(226) 



And midnight's starry torches, 
Through intermediate gloom, 

Are waving with their welcome 
To thy eternal home. 

Jerusalem, the Golden, 

Where loftily they sing, 
O'er pain and sorrows olden 

Forever triumphing ; 
Lowly may be thy portal 

And dark may be thy door, 
The Mansion is immortal — 

God's palace for his poor. 



MND let our bodies part, 
To different climes repair; 

Inseparably joined in heart, 
The friends of Jesus are. 

O that our heart and mind 
May evermore ascend, 
(227) 



That haven of repose to find, 
Where all our labors end; 

Where all our toils are o'er, 
Our sufferings, and our pain. 

Who meet on that eternal shore 
Shall never part again. 

Oh happy, happy place, 

Where saints and angels meet; 

There we shall see each other's face, 
And all our brethren greet. 

— Charles Wesley. 



7THE saints on earth and those above 
But one communion make; 

Joined to our Lord in bonds of love, 
All of His grace partake. 

One family, we dwell in Him, 
One church, above, beneath; 
(228) 



FRIENDS IN HEAVEN 



Though now divided by the stream, 
The narrow stream of death. 

One army of the living God, 
To His commands we bow; 

Part of the host have crossed the flood, 
And part are crossing now. 

— Doddridge. 



*KLEST hour, when virtuous friends 
shall meet, 

Their earthly sorrows o'er; 
And with celestial welcome greet, 

On an immortal shore. 

The parent finds his long lost child; 

Brothers on brothers gaze; 
The tear of resignation mild 

Is changed to joy and praise. 

(229) 



Each tender tie, dissolved with pain, 
With endless bliss is crowned; 

All that was dead revives again, 
All that was lost is found. 

— Houghton. 



CT^HERE is a place of sacred rest, 

Far, far beyond the skies, 
Where beauty smiles eternally, 

And pleasure never dies ; — 
My Father's house, my heavenly home, 

Where "many mansions" stand, 
Prepared by hands divine for all 

Who see the better land. 

In that pure home of tearless joy 
Earth's parted friends shall meet, 

With smiles of love that never fade, 
And blessedness complete; 

(230) 



FRIENDS IN HEAVEN 

There, there adieus are sounds unknown, 
Death frowns not on that scene; 

But life and glorious beauty shine, 
Untroubled and serene. 

— Trumbull. 



^HE following beautiful poem is 
from Bickersteth's Home Call. 
Bickersteth's comment on it is as 
follows : 

The poem that follows on the 
home-call of a tradesman's child, 
whom her mother fondly called her 
"little comforter," — for she was the 
sunbeam of her sick-room — proved, 
I know, the very balm of Gilead 
to the stricken heart for which the 
lines were penned: — 

(231) 



My Little Comforter. 

I; MAY not guard my darling's sleep, 

Beside her bed to-night, 
Only the stars o'er her shall keep 

Their watch till dawn of light; 
But in the land of endless day, 

The land where she is gone, 
They never need nor sun nor star, 

For God is light alone. 

The little pattering feet which made 

Such music for me here, 
I know are by the angels led 

By streams of water clear. 
I know that to my darling's hands 

A harp of gold is given, 
And that the voice now hush'd for me 

Has learnt the songs of heaven. 

But oh, the silence in our home, 
The weary, aching pain, 
(232) 



The longing that we may not quell, 

To call her back again; 
One hand of love can dry our tears, 

One pierced hand alone, 
One only voice can bid us say, 

"Father, Thy will be done." 

Oh no, I would not bring her back 

To this poor world below, 
I know whose voice has call'd her home, 

And I will let her go. 
For many a storm of grief may rise 

To cloud our heavenward way, 
But in her home so passing fair, 

All tears are wiped away. 

And when my time of tears is o'er, 

My weary journey done, 
When in the land where crowns are given, 

My cross I shall lay down, 

(233) 



RECOGNITION OF OUR 



When through the golden gates of heaven 

The angel songs I hear, 
My little comforter shall be 

The first to greet me there. 



7ljfri HEN I consider life and its few years, 
A wisp of fog betwixt us and the sun ; 
A call to battle and the battle done 
Ere the last echo dins within our ears; 
A rose choked in the grass ; an hour of fears ; 
The gusts that past a darkening shore do 

beat ; 
The burst of music down an unlistening 
street ; 
I wonder at the idleness of tears. 
Ye old, old dead, and ye of yesternight, 
Chieftains and bards, and keepers of the 

sheep, 
By every cup of sorrow that you had, 
(234) 



Loose me from tears and make me see 

aright, 
How each hath back what once he stayed 

to weep; 
Homer his sight, David his little lad. 

— Lizette Woodward Reese. 



7|jrriHEN the holy angels meet us, 

As we go to join their band, 
Shall we know the friends that greet us 

In that glorious spirit-land? 
Shall we see the same eyes shining 

On us, as in days of yore? 
Shall we feel the dear arms twining 

Fondly round us, as before? 



^VER the river they beckon to me, 
Loved ones who've crossed to the further 
side ; 

The gleam of their snowy robes I see, 

But their voices are lost in the dashing 

tide. 

(235) 



There's one with ringlets of sunny gold, 

And eyes the reflection of heaven's own 

blue, 

He crossed in the twilight gray and cold 

And the pale mist hid him from mortal 
view; 

We saw not the angels who met him there, 
The gates of the city we could not see; 

Over the river, over the river, 

My brother stands waiting to welcome me. 

Over the river the boatman pale 
Carried another, the household pet; 

Her brown curls waved in the gentle gale, 
Darling Minnie! I see her yet. 

She crossed on her bosom her dimpled hands 
And fearlessly entered the phantom bark ; 

We felt it glide from the silver sands, 

And all our sunshine grew strangely 
dark! 

We know she is safe on the further side, 
Where all the ransomed and angels be; 

Over the river, the mystic river, 

My childhood's idol is waiting for me. 
(236) 



Not Lost, but Gone Befote. 

This is the title of a beautiful 
hymn by Montgomery. Dr. Har- 
baugh makes the following com- 
ment on it : 

It is not so much the logic as 
the life, which gives this piece 
such strength to win our heart. 
We call it beautiful, and feel its 
influence, without asking closely in 
what its strength lies. Like a real 
friend, it bears acquaintance, and 
yields more richly in proportion as 
it is studied. Thousands have loved 
it who could not tell why — a real 
evidence of its excellence — because 
it lays hold of our life deeper 
than that part of us which renders 
a reason. 

(237) 



-IpRIEND after friend departs; 

Who hath not lost a friend? 
There is no union here of hearts 

That finds not here an end: 
Were this frail world our final rest, 

Living or dying none were blest. 

Beyond the flight of time, 
Beyond the reign of death, 

There surely is some blessed clime, 
Where life is not a breath; 

Nor life's affections transient fire, 
Whose sparks fly upward and expire. 

There is a world above, 

Where parting is unknown; 

A long eternity of love, 

Formed for the good alone; 

And faith beholds the dying here 
Translated to that glorious sphere. 

(238) 



FRIENDS IN HEAVEN 

Thus star by star declines, 

Till all are passed away, 
As morning high, and higher shines, 

To pure and perfect day; 
Nor sink those stars in empty night, 

But hide themselves in heaven's own 
light. 



A Mother's Lament. 

*II LOVED thee, daughter of my heart ; 

My child, I loved thee dearly; 
And though we only met to part, — 

How sweetly! how severely! — 
Nor life nor death can sever 
My soul from thine for ever. 

Thy days, my little one, were few; 

An angel's morning visit, 
That came and vanished with the dew, 

'Twas here, — 'tis gone — where is it? 
Yet didst thou leave behind thee 
A clue for love- to find thee. 
M (239) 



Sarah! my last, my youngest love, 

The crown of every other! 
Though thou art born in heaven above, 

I am thine only Mother! 
Nor will affection let me 
Believe thou canst forget me. 

Then — thou in heaven and I on earth — 
May this one hope delight us, 

That thou wilt hail my second birth, 
When death shall reunite us, 

Where worlds no more can sever 

Parent and child for ever. 

— Montgomery . 



Christus Consolator* 

^jgEFORE the dead I knelt for prayer, 
And felt a presence as I prayed. 

Lo! it was Jesus standing there. 
He smiled: "Be not afraid!" 

(240) 



FRIENDS IN HEAVEN 

"Lord, Thou hast conquered death, we 
know ; 

Restore again to life," I said, 
"This one who died an hour ago." 

He smiled: "She is not dead." 

"Asleep then, as thyself didst say: 
Yet thou canst lift the lids that keep 

Her prisoned eyes from ours away!" 
He smiled: "She doth not sleep!" 

"Nay then, tho' haply she do wake 
And look upon some fairer dawn, 

Restore her to our hearts that ache!" 
He smiled: "She is not gone!" 

"Alas! too well we know our loss, 
Nor hope again our joy to touch, 

Until the stream of death we cross." 
He smiled: "There is no such!" 

(241) 



■■ ■ ''■ ■m i i i r i lm i . . 111 • . i ii i ■ ii i u , n i . ii m i m 

RECOGNITION OF OUR 

"Yet our beloved seem so far, 
The while we yearn to feel them near, 

Albeit with Thee we trust they are." 
He smiled: "And I am here!" 

"Dear Lord, how shall we know that they 
Still walk unseen with us and Thee, 

Nor sleep, nor wander far away?" 
He smiled: "Abide in Me." 

— R. W. Raymond. 



Reunion m Heaven* 

7|jfriHEN shall we meet again? 

Meet ne'er to sever? 
When will peace wreathe her chain 

Round us for ever? 
Our hearts will ne'er repose 
Safe from each blast that blows 
In this dark vale of woes — 

Never — no, Never! 

(242) 



1 . 1 . i .n ^-.-^m 



When shall love freely flow, 

Pure as life's river? 
When shall sweet friendship glow, 

Changeless for ever? 
Where joys celestial thrill, 
Where bliss each heart shall fill, 
And fears of parting chill — 

Never — no, Never! 

Up to that world of light, 

Take us, dear Savior, 
May we all there unite, 

Happy, for ever: 
Where kindred spirits dwell, 
There may our music swell, 
And time our joys dispel — 

Never — no, Never! 

Soon shall we meet again — 

Meet ne'er to sever; 
Soon will peace wreathe her chain 

Round us for ever: 
(243) 



RECOGNITION OF OUR 

Our hearts will then repose 
Secure from worldly woes: 
Our songs of praise shall close — 
Never — no, Never! 



The Dying Saint to His Soul. 

A distinguished Lutheran divine 
informs us, that several years ago, 
while lying in a trance during his 
sickness, he experienced something 
like what is described in the fol- 
lowing lines : 

MJlTAL spark of heavenly flame ! 
Quit, O quit this mortal frame: 
Trembling, hoping, ling'ring, flying, 
O the pain, the bliss of dying! 
Cease, fond nature, cease thy strife, 
And let me languish into life. 

(244) 



Hark! they whisper; angels say, 
"Sister spirit, come away;" 
What is this absorbs me quite? 
Steals my senses, shuts my sight, 
Drowns my spirit, draws my breath! 
Tell me, my soul, can this be death? 
The world recedes, it disappears! 
Heaven opens on my eyes — my ears 
With sounds seraphic ring! 
Lend, lend your winds, I mount! I fly! 
O grave, where is thy victory? 
O death, where is thy sting? 



Sorrow Not, Even as Others. 

[I F death my friend and me divide, 
Thou dost not, Lord, my sorrows chide 

Nor frown my tears to see ; 
Restrained from passionate excess, 
Thou bidst me mourn in calm distress, 
For them .that rest in thee. 
(245) 



I feel a strong, immortal hope, 
Which bears my mournful spirit up 

Beneath its mountain load; 
Redeemed from death, and grief, and pain, 
I soon shall find my friend again, 

Within the arms of God. 

Pass the few fleeting moments more, 

And death the blessing shall restore, 

Which death hath snatched away: 

For me, thou wilt the summons send, 

And give me back my parted friend, 

In that eternal day! 

— Charles Wesley. 



Pilgrims of the Night. 

*ft\ ARK, hark, my soul ! Angelic songs are 
swelling 

O'er earth's green fields, and ocean's wave- 
beat shore: 

(246) 



How sweet the truth those blessed strains 

are telling, 
Of that new life when sin shall be no more. 

(refrain.) 

Angels of Jesus, angels of light, 

Singing to welcome the pilgrims of the night. 

Onward we go, for still we hear them singing, 
Come, weary souls, for Jesus bids you come; 
And through the dark, its echoes sweetly 

ringing, 
The music of the gospel leads us home. 

Far, far away, like bells at evening pealing, 

The voice of Jesus sounds o'er land and sea; 

And laden souls, by thousands meekly steal- 
ing, 

Kind Shepherd, turn their weary steps to 
Thee. 

(247) 



Angels, sing on, your faithful watches keep- 
ing, 

Sing us sweet fragments of the songs above ; 

Till morning's joy shall end the night of 
weeping ; 

And life's long shadows break in cloudless 
love. 

— Frederick W. Faber. 



The Land Immortal. 

7THERE is a land immortal, 

The beautiful of lands, 
Beside its ancient portal 

A silent sentry stands ; 
He only can undo it, 

And open wide the door ; 
And mortals who pass through it 

Are mortal never more. 
(248) 



FRIENDS IN HEAVEN 



Though dark and drear the passage 

That leadeth to the gate, 
Yet grace attends the message, 

To souls that watch and wait: 
And at the time appointed 

A messenger comes down, 
And guides the Lord's anointed 

From cross to glory's crown. 

Their sighs are lost in singing, 
They're blessed in their tears; 

Their journey heavenward winging, 
They leave on earth their fears; 

Death like an angel seemeth; 

"We welcome thee," they cry; 

Their face with glory beameth — 
'Tis life for them to die! 

— Thomas MacKellar. 



(249) 



- ' I I I'l . 



RECOGNITION OF OUR 

Sweet to Die. 

(^ IT is sweet to die — to part from earth — 

And win all heaven for things of idle worth ; 
Then sure thou wouldst not, though thou 

couldst awake 
The little slumberer, for its mother's sake. 
It is when those we love, in death depart, 
That earth has slightest hold upon the heart. 
Hath not bereavement higher wishes taught, 
And purified from earth, thine earth-born 

thought? [dear, 

I know it hath. Hopejthen appears more 
And heaven's bright realms shine brightest 

through a tear. 

Though it be hard to bid thy heart divide, 

And lay the gem of all thy love aside — 

Faith tells thee, and it tells thee not in vain, 

That thou shalt meet thine infant yet again. 

On seraph wings the new-born spirit flies, 

To brighter regions and serener skies; 

And ere thou art aware the day may be, 

When to those skies thy babe shall welcome 

thee. 

(250) 



The Saints on Earth. 

CT^HE saints on earth, when sweetly they 

converse, 

And the dear favors of kind heaven re- 
hearse, 

Each feels the other's joys, both doubly 
share 

The blessings which devoutly they compare. 

If saints such mutual joy feel here below, 

When they each other's heavenly fore- 
tastes know, 

What joys transport them at each other's 
sight, 

When they shall meet in empyreal height! 

Friends, even in heaven, one happiness 
would miss, 

Should they not know each other when in 
bliss. 

— Bishop Ken. 

(251) 



When God with Prophets Spake. 

(^H, wondrous times! — those palmy days 

of old; — 
When God with prophets spake, and angels 

walk'd 
With men — when heaven, with mild and 

radiant eye, 
Through dreams, and types, and shadowy 

visions look'd, 
And smiled on all who sought a better life. 
Though darkly hung the mystic veil that 

hid 
The better world; yet, through it, faith 

beheld, 
On the celestial side, the lovely forms 
Of sainted friends in blessed pastimes move. 
They mourn'd, but still in hope, for those 

beyond ; 
And, smiling through their tears, in meek- 
ness said, 
They cannot come to us, but we shall go 
To them. 

(252) 




THE ASCENSION. 



H. HOFMANN. 



FRIENDS IN HEAVEN 



My Savior First of AIL 

TITTI HEN my life's work is ended, 

And I cross the swelling tide, 
When the bright and glorious morning I 
shall see; 
I shall know my Redeemer when I reach 
the other side 
And His smile will be the first to welcome 
me. 

(Chorus :) 

I shall know Him, I shall know Him, 
And alone by His side I shall stand. 

I shall know Him, I shall know Him, 
By the print of the nails in His hand. 

Oh the soul-thrilling rapture when I view 
His blessed face, 
And the lustre of His kindly beaming 
eyes ; . 

(255) 



FRIENDS IN HEAVEN 

How my full heart will praise Him for the 
mercy, love and grace, 
That prepares for me a mansion in the 
skies. 

Oh the dear ones in glory how they beckon 
me to come, 
And our parting at the river I recall; 
To the sweet vales of Eden they will sing 
me welcome home, 
But I long to meet my Savior first of all. 

To the gates of the city in a robe of spot- 
less white, 
He will lead me where no tears will ever 
fall; 
In the glad song of angels shall I mingle 
with delight; 
But I long to meet my Savior first of all. 

(256) 



jam a igofc- 



Deacidified using the Bookkeeper process. 
Neutralizing agent: Magnesium Oxide 
Treatment Date: August 2005 

PreservationTechnologies 

A WORLD LEADER IN PAPER PRESERVATION 

1 1 1 Thomson Park Drive 
Cranberry Township, PA 16066 
(724)779-2111 



fit? 



